The Challenges of Establishing Standards in the Electric Industry

Joe Weiss works as the Managing Partner of Applied Control Solutions and Managing Director of the ISA99 standards organization. He has a deep background in control systems security, and has been active in the cyber security community around control systems for decades. Control systems are everywhere in every type of power generation, substation, pipeline, manufacturing, transportation, medical, pharmaceuticals – and security is often not understood. Our conversation covered a range of topics including how security is only a small part of control system challenges, the three “legs” of security (physical, IT security and control systems), the cultural challenges to raising appropriate security awareness, and areas where security has been overlooked. He provides a look into the magnitude of the problem, while pointing to encouraging areas of progress.