OPC

For the past decade, industrial control systems administrators and engineers wanted to believe that ‘air gaps’ or ‘security by obscurity’ would keep them safe from security threats.  Those days are over - recent security incidents such as the Stuxnet worm are a loud wakeup call for the industrial automation industry.

This White Paper explains the security advantages of limiting network interfaces and protocols, and recommends using OPC as a communications standard because of its ease of use and its widespread deployment.

It goes on to discuss how different defensive layers can be employed to provide high security when using OPC technology.  The paper also outlines a simple and cost effective way to secure OPC that can be deployed in almost any industrial facility.

Stuxnet is a computer worm designed to target one or more industrial systems that use Siemens PLCs. However, it is aggressive on all networks and can negatively affect any control system.

Stuxnet spreads rapidly using Local Area Network communications and one of the most effective ways to prevent this type of distribution is to make use of zone-based defenses.

This Application Note describes how to divide the control network into security zones and how to use the Tofino Industrial Security Solution to prevent the spread of the Stuxnet worm.

New Tofino® OPC Enforcer technology secures any system using classic OPC, the world’s most widely used industrial integration protocol....

Belden has recently introduced version 1.6.0 of its Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 Tofino industrial network security system, including the new EAGLE20 Tofino OPC Enforcer Loadable Software Module (LSM). Developed by Byres Security Inc. for Hirschmann™, the OPC Enforcer locks down any system using the widely installed OPC Classic protocol, providing superior security over what can be achieved with conventional firewall solutions.