The promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is no joke. Whether steel mill or beverage manufacturer or oil refinery, the benefits of connected operations—optimization, efficiency, profitability—are profound. But the threat that connectivity brings with it is no joke either.
“None of this works without cybersecurity. Everything we do, every R&D effort, the first thing we think about, the middle thing we think about, the last thing we think about is cybersecurity,” said Thad Frost, Foxboro DCS leader for Schneider Electric, during a press briefing about distributed control system (DCS) advances. “If cybersecurity breaks down, all this starts circling the drain.”
So cybersecurity was mentioned early and often in many of the discussions this week at Innovation Days, Schneider Electric’s Foxboro and Triconex user group meetings in Austin. The automation and energy management company has taken a leadership position in cybersecurity—highly involved in the development of the ISA/IEC 62443-4-1 cybersecurity standard and applying that experience to how it develops more secure products.
Part of the company’s excitement this week was over the certification it…
