Industrial Automation and Control System Security Principles: Protecting the Critical Infrastructure

The use of cyber warfare as a prelude or substitute for conventional attacks has gone from conjecture to reality. The obvious targets of such assaults are a nation’s defense establishment, critical infrastructure, corporate intellectual property, government databases, and production capabilities. Contrary to popular opinion, there are effective, structured defenses against such aggression, if they are conscientiously and properly implemented and maintained.



This text builds on the established fundamentals of information system security, examines the extant and emerging standards and guidelines from a variety of respected sources, and addresses the unique requirements of industrial automation and control systems. It presents a clear and implementable formula to defend crucial elements, such as refineries, chemical plants, manufacturing operations, power plants, transportation systems, and pipelines. This work develops a novel protection approach based on the merging of the best relevant and proven government and industry standards, resulting in a practical instrument that can be straightforwardly applied to secure our valuable resources.