Blog
- What is IEC 62443? The OT security standard series explainedIEC 62443 is a series of standards for industrial automation and control system security. What the parts cover, how zones, conduits and security levels work, and who the standard applies to.
- What is NIST SP 800-82? The OT security guide explainedNIST SP 800-82 is the federal guide to securing operational technology. What Revision 3 covers, how it differs from earlier versions, and how operators use it.
- What is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework? CSF 2.0 explainedThe NIST Cybersecurity Framework organizes a security program into six functions. What CSF 2.0 changed, how profiles and tiers work, and how it fits with OT-specific guidance.
- What is the Purdue model? A plain explanation for OT networksThe Purdue model sorts an industrial network into levels, from field devices up to the corporate network. What each level holds, where the DMZ sits, and where the model stops fitting.
- What an ICS security assessment covers, and what it leaves aloneWhat's in scope for an ICS security assessment, how the evidence gets gathered without probing live controllers, which frameworks the findings map to, and what a useful report looks like.
- Active vs. passive vulnerability scanning in OTPassive scanning listens to OT traffic; active scanning probes devices. What each finds and misses on a live control network, and when active is safe.
- Cybersecurity Assessment Plan: preparing for the annual cycleSD Pipeline-2021-02G requires a Cybersecurity Assessment Plan, submitted annually, that proves the Implementation Plan works. What the schedule requires, what counts as an assessment method, and what the annual report has to say.
- Pipeline Cybersecurity Coordinator responsibilitiesTSA requires a named Cybersecurity Coordinator and alternate, reachable 24/7. What the directive requires of the role and what makes it work in practice.
- Cybersecurity Implementation Plan: what operators must maintainTSA approval of a Cybersecurity Implementation Plan starts an ongoing obligation. SD Pipeline-2021-02G requires the plan to stay current, and sets specific deadlines for reporting the changes that keep it that way.
- Pipeline cybersecurity incident response: IT and OT considerationsSD Pipeline-2021-02G requires an Incident Response Plan built around four specific objectives, one of them explicitly about isolating IT from OT. What that means in practice, and why the same containment step reads differently on each side of the boundary.
- How to prepare leadership for a TSA cybersecurity assessmentThe Cybersecurity Coordinator can produce every document TSA asks for and the meeting can still go sideways if the executives in the room can't speak to the program behind the paperwork. What leadership needs to know going in.
- How to verify IT/OT segmentation in operational networksPurdue is for diagrams; zones and conduits are for design. Three passive checks that test a segmentation design against the network it runs on.
- Why a routine IT scan can take down an RTUActive vulnerability scanning is standard IT hygiene. Pointed at an OT network, the same scan can trip a control outage, and NIST 800-82r3 explains why the two environments need different playbooks.