Zones and conduits (with protection needs analysis) What is a zone? A complete plant is difficult to grasp or categorize in terms of possible threats and necessary security measures. For this reason, the IEC 62443 standard divides a complete system into so-called zones. In terms of the standard,… Read More
IT and OT/ICS: a comparison Note: The abbreviation ICS stands for Industrial Control System. With regard to security, a distinction must be made between different types of technology or networks: IT Information Technology Office (accounting, sales, management, …). Here, the ISO 27001 standard for the plant owner… Read More
Certificates What are certificates used for? Certificates can be used for the following: Securing communication connections between participants in your ICS. Participants can be, for example: Devices used to build automation infrastructures and systems (such as PLCnext Technology controllers, switches, etc.). Server and client… Read More
Technical PC hardening measures Any engineering tool, such as PLCnext Engineer, can manipulate devices or processes in your ICS. To reduce the risk of manipulation, perform security evaluations regularly. PC-based hardening and organization measures Protect any PCs used in automation solution environments against security-relevant manipulations. This… Read More
Technical and organizational security measures To achieve security, a holistic approach is necessary: An adequate security concept must include the technology used, defined processes, and the people involved, i.e., it must specify both technological and organizational measures. Many but not all threats can be defended against with… Read More
NAT and port forwarding General information Network Address Translation (NAT) separates internal (private) and external (public) network areas. A NAT device (which is usually located at the network or zone border) exchanges public and private IP addresses. This way, all internal network addresses are hidden behind the… Read More
Network segmentation It is difficult to determine the protection needs of an entire plant and to implement protective measures on this basis. If an office network, factory network and, for example, production line networks are directly connected to each other, malfunctions and viruses can be spread directly over all… Read More
About this guideline Validity of this guideline The present documentation is not specifically related to any specific device or software version. It is rather to be understood as generic information which has to be supplemented by the related product-specific information given in the respective device manual or… Read More
Secure communication by encryption and authentication Main goals: integrity and authentication The implementations described in this chapter serve to pursue two main objectives of security engineering: to achieve data integrity and to authenticate users and data sources. Integrity: is the data unchanged? Checksums indicate the… Read More
ISO/IEC 27001 standard: security for traditional IT systems ISO/IEC 27001 is the leading international and most important standard regarding cyber-security of Information Technology (IT) systems. It describes the implementation of an Information Security Management System (ISMS) by providing clear guidelines for planning, implementing, monitoring, and improving your information… Read More
