Industrial Cybersecurity for SMEs.

The International Society of Automation (ISA), at the request of the US Department of Homeland Security, has developed a white paper designed to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs - the Acronym SMB is used in the USA) recognize their vulnerability to industrial cyberattack and forge an effective cybersecurity plan based on established standards and practices.

The white paper covers: • Risk assessment • Essential cybersecurity initiatives, including: Identification, Protection, Detection, Response and Recovery • Awareness and training • Continuous improvement & • Additional references

“Effective cybersecurity management is essential for all organizations, regardless of size,” emphasizes Bill Joss, ISA’s Senior Business Development Manager. “However, most medium- and smaller-sized companies that manage industrial processes and employ some level of automation are unaware of the cyber-risks they face, and are not adequately prepared to implement the proven cybersecurity standards and practices that are available to them.”

“Industrial Cybersecurity for Small and Medium Sized Businesses” draws on ISA’s vast in-depth knowledge of industrial automation and control systems (IACS) and subject-matter expertise in industrial cybersecurity.

“SMBs need to fully understand their cybersecurity risk and take action to reduce this risk, just as they do with other business risks,” Joss says. “The absence of previous incidents, or the belief that the organization is not a likely target, is not sufficient justification for ignoring this issue.”

SMBs—just like large manufacturing operations—are at risk from a wide variety of threats, including amateur and professional hackers, environmental activists, disgruntled employees or contractors and even nation states or terrorists. In addition, many cybersecurity incidents are a result of accidents or unintentional actions. A company does not have to be a specific target to be affected.

The document was co-written by two prominent ISA cybersecurity experts: Steve Mustard, a consultant who has developed cybersecurity management systems, procedures and training for many critical infrastructure organizations throughout the world; and Eric Cosman, a manufacturing operations and control systems consultant and Co-Chair of the ISA99 Committee on industrial cybersecurity standards and practices.

@ISA_Interchange  #PAuto #SME #SMB 

Grant for SMEs announced

National Instruments has announced a grant programme to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in embedded development. Starting in 2009, National Instruments UK and Ireland began offering very low cost training and certification to unemployed scientists and engineers to help them develop skills to aid in finding employment. In 2010, recognising that many of the innovative advances in technology over the past 20 years have been developed by small, entrepreneurial companies, the company is offering grants for software, support and training to micro, small and medium-sized companies (often known collectively as SMEs) that are developing embedded devices in areas such as medical, energy and green engineering.

Knowing that SMEs often have limited resources, they have created a grant programme that will award up to £25,000 (ca €26.6k) in software, support and training to selected SMEs that are evaluating the NI platform as a component of their devices. The goal of the new grant programme is to help these companies reduce the cost and complexity of development by providing them with technology such as the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming environment. The National Instruments software and hardware platforms for graphical system design are ideal for accelerating the design, validation and implementation of new concepts. The LabVIEW graphical programming environment makes system development faster and more intuitive, opening embedded development to scientists and engineers who are experts in their fields but not necessarily in traditional embedded software. When LabVIEW is used together with the FPGA-based CompactRIO architecture it enables the use of the latest embedded technology without the need for costly custom designs.

"National Instruments UK and Ireland is committed to supporting innovation," said Robert Morton, Managing Director. "Through this grant programme, National Instruments is supporting scientists and engineers based in the UK and Ireland who are developing innovative solutions to the grand challenges the world faces in energy, sustainability and healthcare .”

National Instruments UK and Ireland will accept applications throughout 2010. To apply for the programme, SMEs must provide documentation on the company and the project and participate in an interview.