Building cybersecure Industrial Automation & Control Systems (IACS)!
3 September 2020
In close collaboration with the EC DG JRC, ECSO participated in the ERNCIP Thematic Group focusing on IACS.
Industrial Automation & Control Systems (IACS) are essential part of most critical infrastructures and critical services. The term IACS refers to all the components (PLCs, SCADA, HMI, etc.) that are integrated into critical infrastructures and industrial production establishments. Past experience has shown that their cyber vulnerabilities can be exploited by adversaries and create huge impact on infrastructures and subsequent impact on the economy and human lives. Practically, cyberattacks against critical infrastructures are in fact cyberattacks against their Industrial Automation & Control Systems. Thus, it is of paramount importance to apply all possible measures in order to increase the level of cybersecurity of IACS. Nevertheless, for building cybersecure IACS (i.e. whole systems/subsystems) one needs to procure and assemble adequately cybersecure IACS Components, either hardware or software. Hence, it is crucial to focus on the certification/conformance of the separate Components of the IACS, in order to ensure that each one of these Components, as a building element of the whole IACS, satisfies the foreseen cybersecurity requirements.
More about the ERNCIP IACS here.
Read the last publication on Recommendations for the Implementation of the Industrial Automation & Control Systems Components Cybersecurity Certification Scheme (ICCS) here.
The ERNCIP IACS Thematic Group is managed and led, as well as the overall ERNCIP project, by the EC DG JRC. The Joint Research Centre is the Commission’s science and knowledge service. The JRC employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy. The members of the ERNCIP IACS Thematic Group are highly reputable experts in the relevant scientific and technical fields, coming from all over the European Union and working for organisations that covering the whole spectrum of the ICCS stakeholders, including ECSO.
