Can you guess? Think back for a moment or two. It's a few years old now. I always thought it might have been good to blast it through the sound system at the opening of the exhibit halls at ISA Expo or one of the many other tradeshows and user groups that we cover each year. However, it would be hard to find a powerful enough boom box for a freelance effort in this iPod era. Oh well. Anyway, it's quite an uplifting tune. Even the opening guitar riff should clear some cobwebs and recharge some mental batteries on this Friday afternoon. Give up?

Recently, several ICS end users in the Middle East and Asia have been exposed to attacks directly on the control systems through firewalls that have been misconfigured, or not configured correctly, for Modbus and OPC data. These attacks have caused weeks of rebuilding systems, with concomitant loss of production and loss of revenue. We have seen enough of this to validate the ISA99 "zones and conduits" model of ICS system architecture.

Recently, several ICS end users in the Middle East and Asia have been exposed to attacks directly on the control systems through firewalls that have been misconfigured, or not configured correctly, for Modbus and OPC data. These attacks have caused weeks of rebuilding systems, with concomitant loss of production and loss of revenue. We have seen enough of this to validate the ISA99 "zones and conduits" model of ICS system architecture.

ISA has formed a new standards committee, this time to tackle issues around intelligent device management. 

The announcement is below. Here's Fieldbus Foundation's Larry O'Brien's blog on the subject.  

ISA Charters New Standards Committee on Intelligent Device Management

Unless you've been living in a cave or completely focused on the fate of your favorite baseball or basketball team, you're bound to know that the issue of cybersecurity is heating up. If Stuxnet wasn't enough, now there's its evil twin Flame to add to your worries about your computer systems. So it's really no surprise that Honeywell is stepping up to the plate and coming at security and its good twin safety with more applications and services for its customers.

Brad Carlberg, who chaired this year’s Wireless track at Automation Week in Mobile also recorded all the sessions as well so you are now able to get the benefit of both presenter and presentation at the following link http://www.isa.org/~pupid/ISA_AW2011_Sessions.htm

ChemRA. Sounds a bit like a Saturday a.m. kiddie cartoon superhero, but it's not. It's the new initiative from Microsoft to "provide solutions for the chemical and oil refining industries," according to the press release. ChemRA, aka, Chemical Reference Architecture Initiative, Microsoft describes it as "a reference architecture framework that will help address business and technological needs for cutomers in the industry."

Messing around in the social media corner of the Internet today (specifically Twitter) and found this item thanks to Jason Hiner, The editor in chief at TechRepublic.  Proverbs about programming and other technical adventures. Worth a few minutes of your time.

Just wanted to share with you the latest press release:

Siemens SCADA Specialists and Consultants to Provide Best Practices

We just received the following press release:

Critical infrastructure owners positioned to enhance operational excellence, improve security and streamline management requirements