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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Back To Basics: Testing Industrial Control Systems 101
Industry has thrown down the gauntlet to vendors and suppliers of security testing solutions: Testing the network stack or communications protocols is insufficient to ensure safe and reliable operations of industrial components. While plenty of testing tools exist out there today, vendors and asset owners are showing us that you can’t simply tell me that the network stack is up or down. We need to know what jeopardizes uptime and most importantly, safety. A testing methodology that does not reveal the Failure on Demand calculations and provide a reasonable model of failure modes, predictability of failures, and provide accurate feedback ...
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Taking the Next Step Towards Controller Certification
Simply stated, all electronic components are subject to failure. The question is how resilient should we make these components to sustain temporary network fluctuations or security events? The ever-present challenge to an engineer is to keep the process up and running when it supposed to be, and to keep it safe. Knowing the failure modes of controllers, understanding design constraints such as network load and capacity, and understanding the other electronic factors that could impact the uptime of a process gives any engineer a keen advantage in performing their jobs. But with enough on their plates already, should this type ...
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Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Facing Down the Biggest Challenge to Security: Justifying Spending
Finding someone to say that security doesn’t matter is a challenge. Those few that actually still remain in the dark today haven’t knowingly experienced a security problem or have either been living under a technological rock or simply do not understand the whole scope of what security challenges exist. While most would say that security is a problem and they want to protect our assets, businesses, and infrastructure, taking the next step is often hindered by the questions of “what to do” and “who will pay for it?”.
Luckily, “what to do” is becoming much clearer in automation environments. Standards ...
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