Cyber Security in Substation Automation System - ABB’s Approach to address this important topic

Abstract:
The topic of cyber security is becoming increasingly relevant in modern substation automation systems. These systems are more and more interconnected with the utility office network. This interconnection is required to get access to the process data and use the remote access for remote services. Addressing the security issues, several bodies are working on standards for on Cyber Security. But up to now, none of these security standards have been globally accepted. ABB is involved in many of these standards and has looked at all of them. ABB fully understands the importance of and its responsibility in Cyber Security for control systems. We are anticipating the security challenges and constantly adapt our systems to the latest developments in security. We have been involved in cyber security for control systems for over a decade and have made it an embedded part of our processes, design, development, maintenance, lifecycle-management and communications. Examples of activities include threat modeling and security design reviews, security training of software developers or in-house and external security testing as part of our quality assurance processes.