Design of Zones, Conduits, and Channels According to the IEC 62443 (ISA99) Standard in a 4.0 Industry

During the days of June 15, 16, and 17, 2016, the National Cybersecurity Conference was held in Granada , JNIC 2016 in which Logitek participated by presenting the article and presentation “Design of zones, conduits, and channels according to the IEC 62443 (ISA99) standard in a 4.0 Industry.” This article describes how cybersecurity is a key aspect that must be considered in 4.0 Industry environments. The massive incorporation of technologies that help create autonomous and agile factories brings with it the need to carry out this incorporation safely (both from the point of view of physical security or “safety” and logical security or “cybersecurity”).

The fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 is changing the way organizations linked to the industrial sector work. The adoption of technological paradigms such as Cloud Computing, Big Data, IoT (Internet of Things), M2M (Machine To Machine), IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), etc.; the deployment of continuous productivity improvement programs and the design of continuous training programs for all actors involved in the supply chain, are just some of the factors that characterize this new model that seeks to create “smart factories”. To achieve this objective, it is necessary to rely on a reference architecture and standards that help standardize the way in which industrial organizations carry out the transition from an automated industry (or 3.0) to a smart industry (or 4.0).

On the other hand, within the first reference architecture for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0), the IEC 62443 standard is identified as the frame of reference for the transition from an automated industry (or 3.0) to a smart industry (or 4.0) to be carried out safely.

This standard defines the concepts of zone, conduit, and channel as key elements so that the assets that concur in an industrial environment have objective levels of security.

Throughout the article, recommendations are proposed to define the zones, conduits, and channels, following the IEC 62443, in an organization that decides to address a 4.0 Industry initiative, taking into account security throughout its transformation process.

In addition, with the aim of understanding in a practical way how this definition process would be carried out in a 4.0 Industry, a real application case in a brewing industry is presented.

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