Production facilities can contain thousands of technologies from different vendors. Cybersecurity threats only need to exploit one of them to steal trade secrets, stop production or even harm workers. To better secure today’s complex and often vulnerable production operations, the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance recently announced Rockwell Automation as a founding member.

The alliance is a coalition of industry, government agencies and others working to help secure industrial operations.

Some of its objectives include:

• Accelerating the expansion and use of the ISA/IEC 62443 standards
• Developing a skilled and cyber-aware workforce
• Optimising compliance and prevention initiatives
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“We need to work together as an industry, because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” says Megan Samford, Director of Product Security, Rockwell Automation. “Working with partners and competitors alike, we can develop common solutions to better secure operations.

And we can address issues like skills shortages that directly impact security. We also strongly encourage our customers to join us in this effort, because it’s their operations that we’re working to protect, and it’s their voices we most want to hear.”

“Cybersecurity is critical to digital transformation. It’s critical not only for the protection of information and intellectual property but also for the protection of physical assets, the environment and worker safety. Our engagement with the Global Cybersecurity Alliance will be another important step in our efforts to help customers identify and mitigate risks,” explains Rockwell Automation CEO Blake Moret.

ISA developed ISA/IEC 62443, the world’s only consensus-based cybersecurity standards for automation and control system applications.

Rockwell Automation has earned ISA/IEC 62443-4-1 certification for its Security Development Lifecycle, which it uses to design security into the lifecycle of its products. The company also recently introduced the first industrial controller to obtain ISA/IEC 62443-4-2 certification