Cyber security issues have been the subject of standardization initiatives by ISA, IEEE or IEC for some time. ABB plays an active role in all these organizations, helping to define and implement cyber security standards for power and industrial control systems.
Some of the cyber security standards which are most important for substation automation, such as IEC 62351 and IEC 62443 (former ISA S99), are still under active development. ABB participates in the development by delegating subject matter experts to the committee working on the respective standard. Since these standards are still under development, ABB strongly recommends to use existing common security measures available in the market, for example, VPN for secure Ethernet communication.
| Standard | Main focus | Status |
|---|---|---|
| NERC CIP | NERC CIP cyber security regulation for North American power utilities | Released, ongoing 1 |
| IEC 62351 | Data and communications security | Partly released, ongoing |
| IEEE 1686 | IEEE standard for substation intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) cyber security capabilities | Finalized |
ABB has identified cyber security as a key requirement and has developed a large number of product features to support the international cyber security standards such as NERC CIP, IEEE 1686, as well as local activities like the German BDEW white paper.