What is Industrial Cybersecurity? Definition and challenges
Industrial Cybersecurity is defined as the protection of information and industrial infrastructure processes that may be susceptible to cyber-attacks. Industrial cybersecurity is key to keep critical systems up and factories operational. Industrial companies need to grow, expand and benefit from the digital transformation in what we know as Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet or the Connected Industry 4.0.
Industrial cybersecurity must face different types of threats and challenges, among which we can highlight the following ones:Industrial Cybersecurity Regulation
Interest in industrial cybersecurity has grown in recent years. The advent of the NIS directive has stimulated concern about cybersecurity in the European critical infrastructure sector, creating an opportunity for European industry. In addition, the approval of the Cybersecurity Act, meant the creation of a European cybersecurity agency: ENISA and the implementation of a European certification framework.
This framework is in process and there are already European projects that contemplate the possibility of creating a certification scheme for industrial components.
The NIS directive is currently being revised and it is not ruled out that cybersecurity certification will be mentioned as one of the aspects to be taken into account to ensure compliance.
Therefore, we can conclude that future regulations (European and international) will take cybersecurity (and certification) into account.
IEC 62443-4-2: the most recognized standard in the industry
Currently there are several standards used in the market to verify the cybersecurity of industrial components among which IEC 62443-4-2 stands out as the most recognized within the industrial system.
Considering that IEC 62443-4-2 is not an evaluation methodology as itself, it is a catalogue of requirements to be met by industrial components and has four security levels, depending on the requirements to be met.
IEC is working on the creation of an evaluation methodology. TeleTrust has developed an evaluation methodology for 62443-4-2, which is the one we are based on in jtsec when carrying out our evaluation processes according to IEC 62443-4-2. Compliance with IEC 62443-4-2 encloses some of benefits for the developer:
At jtsec, we offer different services to evaluate the cybersecurity of your industrial systems/components:
