Investigations into several major plant accidents by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the U.K. Health and Safety Executive have identified improper modifications to industrial control system (ICS) alarms, control loops and safety instrumented systems (SISs) as either a major contributing factor or a root cause of an incident.
Meanwhile, the fast-growing threat of cyberattacks by nation states or criminals seeking ransoms has created an urgent need to lock down and protect the ICS configuration. Furthermore, unmanaged change initiated by internal actors can lead to the same catastrophic consequences that an external bad actor can impart on a production facility.
Eddie Habibi, PAS Global, explains how defining and implementing a basic cybersecurity strategy that includes change management of the ICS configuration will help protect against cyber vulnerabilities on our sister website, ChemicalProcessing.com.
