(55am) The Intersection of OT Security and Process Safety

The rise of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure creates troubling concerns for security, economic stability, and personnel and public safety. However, many companies are still relatively unprepared to successfully defend their facilities from cyberattacks launched by increasingly sophisticated threat actors. Safe production is at risk.

Safety focuses on incident prevention and measures risks to personnel. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting systems from threat actors and measures risk based on the threat landscape. The increased network connectivity that exists within industrial facilities today means that cybersecurity is now closely linked to the safe operation of industrial facilities and their processes. Successful defense of cyber-physical systems from nation-state attacks requires close coordination and collaboration between cybersecurity and process safety. Every safety initiative must now consider cyber risk. Every cybersecurity initiative must now consider safety.

Considerable overlap exists between risk analysis in safety and cybersecurity. Safety and cybersecurity disciplines can learn much from each other. However, safety and cybersecurity standards and corporate organizational structures remain siloed in far too many companies. This session focuses on the importance of executing a cohesive strategy for both safety and cybersecurity to ensure safe and reliable operations.

In this session, we will:

• Examine the existing cyber threat landscape
• Discuss how established process safety best practices can be applied to OT cybersecurity
• Provide practical guidance for improving cyber defenses and reducing safety and environmental cybersecurity risks