The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced today that the FDT Group, an independent, not-for-profit association of international companies active in process and factory automation, is an ISA Promotional Partner.

This new relationship extends previous efforts between the two organizations. FDT Technology, which is also known as IEC 62453, ANSI/ISA103 and China GB/T 29618, began ISA committee activities in 2006 with approval of the ISA 103 standard by the ISA membership in 2011. As an ISA Promotional Partner, the FDT Group will provide the ISA community access to device maintenance and management strategies through a range of ISA media and direct marketing opportunities.

The primary objective of the FDT Group is to provide an open, non- proprietary interface for integrating networks and field devices with engineering, automation and asset management systems. FDT Technology, with its well-known Device Type Managers (DTMs), enable field devices to be configured, operated and maintained through the standardized user interface—regardless of supplier, device type or communication protocol.

“ISA welcomes the FDT Group as an ISA Promotional Partner,” states Jennifer Infantino, ISA’s Manager of Marketing, Communications, and Corporate Partnerships. “ISA members and the automation and control community at large will be able to learn more about the value and benefits of FDT Technology. It is part of our mission to share resources and information that have the potential to positively impact productivity and the profitability of industry.”

Shannon Foos, Director of Marketing for FDT North America, adds, “Our goal with the promotional partnership is to keep the automation and control community current with network and device integration strategies. We will build upon our standards-setting collaboration with ISA to focus on sharing best practices that can help the automation community streamline device and network management efforts. FDT’s universal platform for standardizing the communication and configuration interface between all field devices and host systems has broad applicability across brownfield and greenfield applications in the process, hybrid and discrete industries. The diverse ISA community is ideal for discussing the broad applicability of FDT Technology.”

ISA’s Corporate Partnerships Program offers companies customized packages, combining ISA products and services with marketing opportunities across all channels, and providing a streamlined approach to corporate sponsorship.

Collaboration with the FDT Group will include webinars, web-based articles and podcasts promoted through ISA’s social media channels, topic-focused email blasts and the posting of whitepapers in the online version of ISA’s InTech magazine.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has announced the recipients of its 2013 author awards presented annually by ISA’s Publications Department.

“Each year, ISA is proud to recognize and thank all of the talented authors and contributors who help develop, review and deliver outstanding ISA publications and technical resources to automation and control professionals throughout the world,” says Susan Colwell, manager of ISA’s Publications Department.

This year’s awards ceremony was held in concert with the 2013 ISA Automation Week technical conference, which took place 5-7 November 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Winners are recognized for their editorial contributions to a wide range of ISA publications, including ISA books; InTech, ISA’s bi-monthly magazine for automation and control professionals; and ISA Transactions, ISA’s bi-monthly professional journaldedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation.

The Keith Otto Award recognizes the author of the best article in InTech magazine. The award was presented to Chuck Mina for his article in the March/April 2012 issue of InTech entitled, “Disposable automation – Single-use technologies for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.” Mina is deputy director of Automation Engineering at Sanofi Pasteur (the vaccines division of Sanofi) in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, USA. He also has worked on a variety of biotechnology projects at Amgen and Eli Lilly.

The Nels Tyring Award recognizes the author of the best published article in one of the Society’s journals. Dennis Brandl is this year’s recipient for his July/August 2012 InTech article on factory automation, “Business-to-shop integration realized through B2MML.” Brandl is the chief consultant for BR&L consulting, which specializes in manufacturing IT and flexible manufacturing solutions. He has been involved in MES, batch control, and automation system design and implementation in a wide range of applications over the past 25 years.

The John McCamey Award recognizes promising young authors who publish their first article in one of the Society’s publications. This year’s award also recognizes one of the important tenets of the ISA Mentor program, which is to foster publishing by practitioners to advance knowledge in the automation profession and provide recognition to the individual. The award recipients are ISA Mentor program protégés Danaca Jordan and Héctor Torres, and their mentors Hunter Vegas and Greg McMillan, for their article in the January/February 2013 issue of InTech titled, “Enabling New Automation Engineers.”

The Raymond D. Molloy Award is presented in honor of Raymond D. Molloy’s contributions to the automation profession. Molloy was a major driving force in the ISA publications program for more than 20 years and maintained a keen interest in ISA’s publication of high-quality books that met the needs of measurement and control professionals. This award was presented to Terry Blevins, Willy Wojsznis, and Mark Nixon, who are the 2012 best-selling ISA authors for their book Advanced Control Foundation: Tools, Techniques and Applications. Their book sold the most units of any new book published by ISA in 2012.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that its ProSafe®-RS safety instrumented system has obtained the ISASecure®* Embedded Device Security Assurance (EDSA) certification.

Cyber crime and cyber warfare are on the rise worldwide, and are growing ever more sophisticated. Recent prominent cases of industrial sabotage and espionage have escalated these concerns. Companies in the oil, petrochemical, power, and other industries are increasingly vigilant about such intrusions, and are being careful to check a product's cyber security features before purchasing it. Yokogawa has obtained the ISASecure EDSA certification for the ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system to assure customers of its high reliability.

Nobuaki Konishi, vice president of the Systems Business Division in Yokogawa's Industrial Automation Platform Business Headquarters, had the following to say about this development: "Yokogawa is continually striving to provide its customers optimum security solutions for their control systems by such means as developing highly secure systems and instruments and providing operational support services." He went on to say, "Yokogawa aims to strengthen its relationships with customers by demonstrating the reliability of its security solutions."

Drawing on its internationally recognized leadership and expertise in industrial automation and control systems security, the International Society of Automation (ISA) has developed a knowledge-based industrial cybersecurity certificate program.  Through the work of the ISA Committee on Security for Industrial Automation & Control Systems (ISA99), ISA has developed the ANSI/ISA99, Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security standards (known internationally as ISA99/IEC 62443).

ISA’s new certificate program, the ISA99/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist Certificate, is designed to help professionals involved in IT and control systems security improve their understanding of ISA99/IEC 62443 principles and acquire a command of industrial cybersecurity terminology.  Developed by a cross-section of international cybersecurity subject-matter experts from industry, government and academia, the series of ISA99/IEC 62443 standards apply to all key industry sectors and critical infrastructure, providing the flexibility to address and mitigate current and future vulnerabilities in industrial automation and control systems.

The ISA99/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Specialist Certificate will be awarded to those who successfully complete a designated, two-day ISA classroom training course, Using the ANSI/ISA99 (IEC 62443) Standards to Secure Your Industrial Control System (IC32), and pass a 75-question, multiple-choice exam.  While there are no required prerequisites to register for the certificate program and an application is not required to take the exam, it is helpful if interested professionals possess at least three to five years of experience in the IT cybersecurity field, with at least two of those years in a process control engineering environment in an industrial setting.

“Our new cybersecurity certificate program is another step forward in ISA’s development as a global leader in industrial cybersecurity standards, training and education, and in building on our commitment to meeting the needs of industrial control systems professionals throughout the world,” says Dalton Wilson, ISA’s Manager of Education Services.

Throughout 2013, both ISA and its sister organization, the Automation Federation, have played prominent roles in helping the US government develop a national Cybersecurity Framework designed to thwart a potentially devastating cyberattack on critical infrastructure, such as a power plants, water treatment facilities and transportation grids.

The exam:

The paper/pencil-formatted version of the ISA99/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Certificate Program exam is available now. The electronic version will be available through the Prometric global network of testing centers during the first quarter of 2014.

In order to sit for the exam, applicants must register for both the aforementioned ISA course (IC32) and exam, and successfully complete the course.

The exam will cover the following areas:

• Understanding the Current Industrial Security Environment

• How Cyber Attacks Happen

• Creating a Security Program

• Risk Analysis

• Addressing Risk with Security Policy, Organization, and Awareness

• Addressing Risk with Selected Security Counter Measures

• Addressing Risk with Implementation Measures

• Monitoring and Improving the CSMS

• Designing/Validating Secure Systems

Certificate renewal requirements:

Because the ISA99/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Fundamentals Certificate Program is a certificate and not a certification, certificate holders are not required to renew the ISA99/IEC 62443 Certificate.

However, once obtained, the certificate will only be considered current for three years. After the three-year expiration date, a certificate holder will no longer be able to claim that he or she holds a current/active ISA99/IEC 62443 certificate. In order to extend the current status of an expired certificate, a certificate holder must register for and take the related ISA99/IEC 62443 Certificate Knowledge Review. A score of 70% or higher is required to extend the current status of a certificate.

Certificate Program