ISA introduces guide to ISA/IEC 62443 cybersecurity standards

The International Society of Automation (ISA) and the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance have released a new guide, “Quick Start Guide: An Overview of the ISA/IEC 62443 Series of Standards.” The guide provides a high-level view of the objectives and benefits of these standards—as well as explainers on how to navigate them. The guide explores how and why IT and OT/ICS need unique types of protection against cyber threats and offers the latest recommendations on patch management.

This new guide answers some of the most common questions about the ISA/IEC 62443 standards. The guide answers why this series of standards is important, what the benefits of using the standards are, how and ICS systems differ, which documents are part of the series and where one can find the current best practices around patch management.

The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance’s Advocacy and Adoption work group coordinated the development of the guide, which was authored by Johan Nye. Nye is an independent consultant specializing in industrial control systems and cybersecurity.

"Automation cybersecurity standards are crucial in this increasingly connected world," said Mary Ramsey, ISA executive director. "The ISA/IEC 62443 Series of Standards leads the way as the world’s only consensus-based standards that focus on automation cybersecurity. One goal of the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance is to raise awareness of these standards and encourage their adoption across a wide range of industries. We are grateful to the ISAGCA Advocacy and Adoption work group and Johan Nye for distilling these standards into a user-friendly format that can be shared widely."