PuK - Process Technology & Components 2024

Components
OT security
New standards affect the OT network
OT security must be planned from the outset
Denise Fritzsche und Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Nora Crocoll
Security is becoming an increasingly
important topic for machine builders
and plant operators. Standards
such as IEC 62443 (international series
of standards for “Industrial communication
networks - IT security
for networks and systems”), among
other things, set requirements for
system security and security levels.
The objective is to strengthen industry’s
cyber resilience, above all
on the OT (Operational Technology)
level too. For this is affected by attacks
on the IT level with increased
regularity, effectively as “bycatch”.
At the same time, it should also be
protected from direct attacks, which
occur in the production environment.
Security is therefore a topic
that not only concerns the individual
system parts, but above all the
communication platform used too.
Plants in automated production or
the process industry are made up
of numerous individual machines.
The management initiates digitalisation
projects such as process optimisation,
increasing process transparency,
energy management, etc.
As a result, the requirements for
network communication and its security
change. As matters currently
stand, IEC 62443, Part 3-3 (“System
security requirements and security
levels”) will also be incorporated in
the (EU) Machinery Regulation via
Annex III 1.1.9 and will create the
circumstances for secure communication.
Regardless of this, the Directive’s
regulations are already helpful
requirements for ensuring security
in an OT network. It can be assumed
that plant builders and operators will
soon be required to have more network
know-how. Or they will bring in
external expertise, as is the case for
mechanical engineering.
Security concepts
OT security is not something that can
be simply “pulled on” after completion
of a plant. Rather, the topic affects
every installed component of
the plant and extends to the depth
of the physical network structure.
Cyber security must therefore be
planned from the outset. To this end,
IEC 62443 provides various security
concepts, which not only concern the
hardware and systems used, but also
Fig. 1: Tools and strategies for cyber security concern the entire life cycle of a plant.
(Copyright holder: Indu-Sol)
processes in the company and the
organisation’s degree of maturity, in
other words, the employees’ understanding
of the existing processes
and their ability to know what to do in
the respective problem case.
The network experts of Indu-Sol
have been dealing with the reliability
of industrial networks since the
company was founded a good twenty
years ago. A network that does not
function reliably, for whatever reasons,
always also influences the security
of the whole plant. The tools can
be used to make transparent what is
going on in the network. Above all in
relation to the security of networks,
plant builders and operators can be
supported in the areas of hardware
and systems as well as the maturity
of the organisation by providing appropriate
system training courses.
Network in the plant life cycle
Whoever plans for OT security in
plants should also do the same for
the network. But this is a complex
undertaking, which cannot be simply
dealt with as an aside. It needs a
network engineering expert, not only
for the plant planning but also during
subsequent operation. But this is
usually not feasible from a financial
point of view, and as a consequence
of the shortage of skilled personnel,
well-trained employees for network
engineering are hard to find. This is
where it can make sense to outsource
the network topic to external service
providers from the initial period of
the plant’s life cycle (Fig. 1). This provides
the additional advantage that,
on handover of the finished plant
from plant builder to plant operator,
there is no change in responsibility
for the network engineering.
Network experts are able to provide
advisory support during the
strategic planning phase. They then
undertake the network planning in
104 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY & COMPONENTS 2024