- Association News
Summary
Design of Fire and Gas Detection Systems for Process Industries
ISASecure Announces Site Assessment Program for OT Cybersecurity
ISA Wins Two Awards for its Conference
ISA Announces 2023 Global Event Schedule
Online registration opens soon for all conferences.
OT Cybersecurity Summit—Scotland
31 May–1 June 2023
Cheri Caddy, deputy assistant national cyber director at ONCD/the White House and Megan Samford, VP, chief product security officer at Schneider Electric will be keynote speakers for this brand new event. The OT Cybersecurity Summit will focus on the leading international standards and conformance systems that are being used to keep operational technology (OT) safe and secure in industries such as energy, manufacturing, building automation and more. New developments within the ISA/IEC 62443 standards series will be highlighted and technical training and certification programs designed to help you implement the standards into your business operations and workforce will be reviewed. Professionals involved in the security process should attend this event to learn more about workforce development strategies, hardware and software protection practices, and ways to improve infrastructure and data security measures.
Digital Transformation Conference—Brazil
September 2023
This second annual event will take a deeper dive by going beyond the need for effective cybersecurity to keep up with the increasing pace of digital transformation within the industrial automation field. It will explore the development of a smart manufacturing center of excellence that targets the digital landscape as it continues to evolve. This event will provide a platform for sharing ideas and solutions to address the unfolding issues resulting from rapid technological growth across multiple industries in critical infrastructures such as oil/gas, chemical, water, and power generation.
ISA Automation & Leadership Conference—USA
4-6 October 2023
The ISA Automation & Leadership Conference (ALC) is the automation event of the year—combining ISA’s leadership conference with the best technical presentations from ISA’s automation conference series into an unparalleled event experience. This multi-day technical and leadership conference and exhibition will bring together a global audience of automation managers, engineers, and technicians who want to stay abreast of trending industry topics focused on digital transformation, cybersecurity, IIoT, smart manufacturing, and process automation. It will provide attendees with access to an array of subject matter experts from the US, Middle East, Brazil, Malaysia, and India—and will offer the best-of-the-best content and ultimate networking opportunities in a fun, interactive format.
Digital Transformation Conference—Asia Pacific
November 2023
This third-annual event will bring together subject matter experts to share end-user case studies and firsthand experiences on how to optimize core assets in acceleration towards energy transition and industrial sustainability through digital transformation. An in-depth program will explore how oil producer companies leverage machine learning, data analytics and IIoT technologies to streamline operations, improve life-of-field production, and increase HSSE across the region.
Design of Fire and Gas Detection Systems for Process Industries
With the release of the ISA-TR84.00.07 technical report on performance-based design of fire and gas detection systems for process industries, risk-based techniques for detector placement have become prevalent in fire and gas system (FGS) design. While the technical report addresses designing the FGS based on the user’s risk profile and performance requirements, it does not provide any guidance on implementing the FGS lifecycle. 
The Performance-based Fire and Gas Systems Engineering Handbook by Austin Bryan, Elizabeth Smith, and Kevin Mitchell provides a thorough overview of the FGS design lifecycle presented in the technical report. It examines each phase of the lifecycle and describes practical activities required to develop an FGS design. In addition to discussing the design process, this handbook also provides appendices that contain data for FGS system risk analysis, FGS risk grading procedures, and a discussion of the FGS mapping techniques used to verify the achievement of the newly defined coverage targets.
Find out more about the book from one of the authors. The book is available for purchase on the ISA website.
ISASecure Announces Site Assessment Program for OT Cybersecurity
This month, the International Society of Automation (ISA), along with the ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI), has announced its intention to create an all-new conformity assessment scheme for automation systems deployed at operating sites—a critical and long overdue addition to the landscape of operational technology (OT) cybersecurity solutions.
Based on the world’s only consensus-based automation and control systems cybersecurity standards—ISA/IEC 62443—the OT cybersecurity site assessment scheme will apply to all types of automation and control systems in industries ranging from traditional process industries to critical infrastructure such as oil and gas, chemicals, and water/wastewater.
Suppliers have broadly adopted the leading international standard for OT cybersecurity, ISA/IEC 62443, as well as its certification scheme, ISASecure, for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) automation and control system products and supplier’s security development practices. ISASecure recently released an IIOT component and gateway certification program (ICSA) to remain current with new technology advances. However, asset owners and plant managers have yet to coalesce around a single cybersecurity assessment scheme for OT deployed at operating sites, relying instead upon a patchwork of thirdparty specifications that may not promote industrial control system (ICS) security best practices, leaving operating sites vulnerable.
“The proposed site assessment scheme will have a critical role in the OT cybersecurity landscape—the automation systems at the operating site itself,” said Brandon Price, ExxonMobil senior principal engineer for ICS Cybersecurity and current ISCI Board Chairman. “This standards-based program is unique, and we anticipate it will become the global standard used by operating sites, certification bodies, internal auditors, and public policy makers.”
The program will encourage the broad industry adoption of the ISA/IEC 62443 operating site cybersecurity standards and best practices. ISA and ISCI plans include building and overseeing a related training and credentialing program for site assessors. ISA and other training organizations already offer training for the ISA/IEC 62443 operating site standards.
“We are inviting companies who are interested in supporting and promoting this program to participate, particularly end-users whose support is critical to this program’s success. Supporters may participate in specification development, provide funding, or simply provide public support,” said Andre Ristaino, managing director of ISA Consortia and Conformity Assessment Programs.
“We anticipate a development schedule of 12–14 months and expect to formally launch the program in Q4 2023 or early 2024,” said Ristaino. An informational webinar was held on 28 February. Visit the website for more information.
ISA Wins Two Awards for its Conference
The Eventeer Awards showcase the best events hosted on the vFairs platform throughout 2022—a total pool of more than 2,000 events with over 10 million attendees worldwide. Nominations for these awards were open to public voting, and winners were determined based on the highest number of votes received.
“We are honored to be recognized for the ISA Automation & Leadership Conference—our Society’s flagship annual event,” said Claire Fallon, ISA executive director. “From its high-caliber speakers and technical content to the excellent networking opportunities for automation leaders and sponsors, our 2022 conference marked a triumphant return to inperson events. Making that experience just as strong for our virtual attendees the world over was a huge priority for our events team, and we are honored to be recognized for the high quality of ISA events.
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