After reading CONTROL magazine‘s Editor-in-Chief Walt Boyes’ Compared to Wireless? blog post, I spoke with DeltaV product manager, Bob Huba, who oversees the cyber-security requirements and developments in the DeltaV system. Bob authored the DeltaV System Cyber-Security and Best Practices for DeltaV Cyber-Security whitepapers.
Bob, a voting member on the SP99 committee, has a slightly different take than Walt’s assessment that what is driving the committee,
…has as its end result getting the Department of Homeland Security off our backs…
This may be a side benefit but Bob feels this is not what is driving the committee to action.
He believes the automation suppliers and end users really understand the importance of having some sort of standards to measure control system security. In fact, Bob says the greatest push for this standard is coming from the user community. They are driving this committee the hardest which seems to be bringing greater cooperation and more focus on getting something done.
If you are interested in some of the work to date by the SP99 committee, you can purchase these reports from the ISA:
ANSI/ISA-TR99.00.02-2004 Integrating Electronic Security into the Manufacturing and Control Systems Environment and ANSI/ISA-TR99.00.01-2004 Security Technologies for Manufacturing and Control Systems.