To address the challenge of protecting automated industrial equipment against evolving threats from cyberspace, Siemens and the International Society of Automation (ISA) have entered into a global partnership to foster the awareness for industrial security needs and global standards.
The two parties will share expertise in protecting what it calls the ‘automation environment’ using the IEC 62443 standard and appropriate security measures in the form of events, webinars and further educational material. ISA and Siemens intend to raise awareness and share best practices for industrial security with owner-operators of industrial equipment.
"Cyber Security needs to be addressed by industrial companies as recent global ransomware attacks have demonstrated the possible impacts in the last weeks. Our customers need to adequately manage the associated cyber risk, arising from the vulnerabilities of IT technology combined with the increased connectedness in our digital age,” commented Henning Rudolf, global head of Siemens Plant Security Services.
The ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI) operates one of the first standardised assessment schemes for IEC 62443 IACS cybersecurity standards, and this programme has been extensively adopted by Siemens. Its Plant Security Services division, which operates cyber security operations centres in the USA and Europe, adheres to the IEC62443 guidelines and the result is available for existing Siemens customers and third-party equipment, providing a multi-layer protection-level approach, asset inventory and tracking, patch and vulnerability management, network segmentation, industrial security management, incident handling and security consulting services, as well as an Emergency Response Team for Siemens solutions.
