ISA/IEC-62443 Compliance: Navigating Security Levels 0 to 4

The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and ISA (International Society of Automation) are two organizations that develop and publish standards for various industries.

Their combined focus is to develops international standards for all electrical, electronic, and related technologies and focus on automation standards and practices to improve efficiency, safety, and reliability in industrial systems.

Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) Organizations are increasingly facing cyber threats because they are experiencing the Industrial Revolution 4.0 which requires OT/IT Convergence for many business reasons.

These inter connected devices and industry systems increases the opportunity for cyber threats which can impose threats to Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) to various industries specially process industries (chemicals/petrochemicals/refining etc.).

The standards created by International Society of Automation (ISA) plays a major role to avoid cyber threats, they are widely accepted by many International organizations and co-developed by Europe’s International Electro-technical Commission (IEC).

The key concept of ISA/IEC 62443-3 for safeguarding Industrial Automation and Control System (IACS) revolves around the idea of Security Levels. A Security Level is defined as a measure of resilience towards threats and vulnerabilities of system.

The higher the Security Level (SL) used, higher will be the potential risk reduction of system. On the basis of technical requirements, ISA/IEC 62443 allows a System integrator or Asset Owner to choose the SL that aligns with the safety requirements of the organization. The five levels are summarized in

Table 1: IEC/ISA 62443-3-3 Security Levels:

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