Wurldtech In The News

Can Security Certification Control Cyber Risk?

November 12, 2010

Industrial devices comply with many standards, but Security certification is a relatively new area that is quickly rising in importance as devices are increasingly connected.

Security vendors often market their wares by trying to scare prospective customers. They warn of electronic hijacking, data disintegration, or even digital Armageddon – cyber attacks concocted by hackers and terrorists who are bent on destroying life as we know it.

For industrial and energy or utility companies, this type of hyperbole is completely unnecessary. Nowhere are the threats and consequences of cyber attacks better understood than in the industrial sector. Human lives depend on the performance and reliability of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems; major underpinnings of our economy and our infrastructure depend on industrial process controls. A security breach is unthinkable.

Yet the mitigation of security risks is a large and growing problem for the industrial sector. As more and more systems are interconnected, and as ever-larger machines are controlled by ever-smaller embedded devices, the impact of intrusion and malware grows exponentially. The key issue is knowing how to tame the massive complexity of thwarting cyber threats in today’s era of information technology convergence and unbridled connectivity. One answer that has emerged is cyber security certification. Let’s skip the hype and take an objective look at what certification is, how it works, and how it can benefit the development of more secure industrial embedded systems.

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