Industrial systems security report

ISA (Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation) Society has announced the approval of a new ISA Technical Report addressing the need for industrial cyber security.

By Control Engineering Staff April 8, 2004

ISA (Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation) Society has announced the approval of a new ISA Technical Report addressing the need for industrial cyber security. More open systems; an increase in joint ventures, alliance partners and outsourced services; development of intelligent manufacturing equipment; increased connectivity to other equipment/software; enhanced external connectivity, combined with rapidly increasing incidents of network intrusion; more intelligent hackers; and malicious software all have increased threats and probability of attack.

These concerns prompted ISA to establish standards development committee ISA-SP99, Manufacturing and Control Systems Security. The new Technical Report, ISA-TR99.00.01-2004, “Security Technologies for Manufacturing and Control Systems,” is the committee’s first publication.

Developed by cyber-security and automation systems experts under the auspices of the ISA Standards and Practices Board, this ISA Technical Report provides recommendations and guidance for using electronic security technologies effectively in manufacturing and control systems. The ISA SP99 Committee used ANSI-accredited procedures in its work.

ISA-TR99.00.01-2004 evaluates and assesses current types of electronic security technologies and tools that apply to the manufacturing and control systems environment (including development, implementation, operations, maintenance, engineering and other user services). It also guides manufacturers, vendors, and security practitioners at end-user companies on the technological options for securing these systems against cyber-attack.

The report addresses manufacturing and control systems electronic security in the broadest possible sense, encompassing all types of plants, facilities, and systems in all industries. Manufacturing and control systems include, but are not limited to:

Hardware and software systems such as Distributed Control Systems (DCS), Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, networked electronic sensing systems, and monitoring, diagnostic, and assessment systems;

Associated internal, human, network, or machine interfaces used to provide control, safety, maintenance, quality assurance, and other manufacturing operations functionality to continuous, batch, discrete, and combined processes.

—David Greenfield, editorial director, Control Engineering, dgreenfield@reedbusiness.com


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