Articles and News

The seminar on 18 April, 2014 titled, “Protecting Our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure: How are your mitigating the risk of a cyberattack?” will take place at the Northern Illinois University Naperville campus.

Industrial Defender is a provider of cyber security solutions for control systems in the oil and gas, utility and chemical industries.

The Dow Chemical Company specialty chemicals plant located in Deer Park, Texas, USA, won the 2013 HART Plant of the Year Award.

ISA will conduct a conference in June 2014 to help corporations and operators of critical infrastructure better protect their systems and networks from potentially destructive cyber attacks.

By Chad Sullivan, 5 Star measurement, et al Five Star Measurement of Weatherford, Texas uses Software Toolbox's Electronic Flow Measurement (EFM) Suite to remotely monitor and manage more than 700 wellheads as an initial stage that may eventually expand to 6,000 sites.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Late last year, Siemens rolled-out of its new Cyber Security Managed Services in the United States. This new offering is aimed at providing continuous, comprehensive cyber protection for production environments. Siemens plans to subsequently introduce this service in Europe and Asia.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The OPC Foundation held their General Assembly meeting on December 4, 2013. Dr. Grant Wilson of Emerson Process Management and Foundation Chairman of the OPC Board opened the meeting, and Tom Burke summarized the Foundation’s current successes as accelerating adoption of OPC technology, successful OPC certification program, IEC standardization, and continuous improvement.

The US Food and Drug Administration incorporated ISA/IEC 62443 series of security standards to its recognized consensus standards list.

Spirax Sarco provides expertise, service, products and turnkey solutions for the control and efficient use of steam, air, and other industrial fluids for industrial and commercial users worldwide.

B&B's Spectre 3G cellular router starter kit now includes a 3-month data plan from KORE's GSM or CDMA North American 3G cellular network.

Since adopting KEPServerEX communications platform, the food production system integrator has been able to improve interoperability and reduce production facility downtime for its customers.

Cyber attacks on industrial operations are a growing concern with potential to disrupt the economy and do harm.

By Mike Fahrion, B&B Electronics Ten commandments—rules, that is—for wireless communications. Covers RF power, frequency, long range reception, noise, rain, interference, antenna placement and more.

SCADA systems were traditionally “walled off” from other systems operating independently from the network. Prior to the awareness of possible attacks, this seemed to provide all the protection the SCADA system needed. They were largely proprietary systems with such limited access and esoteric coding that very few people would have the ability to access them to launch an attack. Over time, however, they became integrated into the larger company network as a means to leverage their valuable data and increase plant efficiency. Therefore, the reality is their security is now often only as strong as the security of the network.

eWON offers industrial VPN routers and Ethernet modems for remote access to PLCs and machines.

New members of Sercos include Innovasic, Festo, Beijing Shouke Catchet Electrical Technology, STGCON New Energy Technology and Huangzhou Wahaha Group.

The series of six free seminars and interactive panel discussions will be held 10-11 March 2014 in the New York City area to explain the importance and implications of the US Cybersecurity Framework.

The mSC free web-based service gives OEMs, machine builders and system integrators a secure, easy and cost-effective way to access machines and systems anywhere in the world over the Internet.

Armstrong International is a manufacturer of steam, gas, and hot water systems.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Cyber-attacks of automation systems are increasing while the industry is broadening the attack surface with more IP-based Ethernet networks. The need to integrate information from controllers with business systems and the implementation of cyber security defenses are working against each other.