From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Tue Jan 06 2009 - 00:32:37 CST

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http://www.controleng.com/article/CA6625494.html

By Peter Welander
Control Engineering
1/5/2009

While cyber security issues have been lurking in the background for some
time now, 2009 will be the year they step into the light and probably
your plant. Here’s why.

First and foremost, the NERC CIP (National Electric Reliability
Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection) regulations are coming
into effect now. This may only affect power plants and larger utilities
for the time being, but what happens through this implementation could
hit you sooner than later.

This program has specific things that electrical producers must do to
ensure the security of their systems and infrastructure, and this will
likely serve as a model for other industries. The definition of
“critical” will likely grow in scope as time goes on. Even if suspending
the output of your plant will not cause the greater economy to grind to
a halt, you might have things on your site that shouldn’t be released
into the atmosphere, dumped into local waterways, set on fire, or
detonated. Keeping those things from happening is critical.

Second, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) will
likely transition its NIST SP 800-82, DRAFT Guide to Industrial Control
Systems (ICS) Security to an official release sometime in 2009. The
comment period on the third and final draft closed on November 30, 2008.
Unlike the NERC regulations, this is only a guide. However, it is
already having a significant influence on security directions for
industries that rely on industrial control systems, i.e., everyone.
Publishing guides and standards is a crowded field, and there is no
shortage of cyber security guides from a variety of organizations. This
NIST guide is showing potential of emerging as the definitive work that
can help tie together many of these standards written for specific
industry verticals.

[...]

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