IACS
Industrial Automation and Control Systems
Industrielle Automatisierungs- und Steuerungssysteme
IACS is the umbrella term for the entirety of systems that automate and control industrial processes — from sensors and controllers through supervisory systems to the associated networks. It encompasses the narrower terms ICS, SCADA and DCS. IACS is the frame of reference to which the security standard series IEC 62443 explicitly relates.
History & facts. While classic IT is oriented towards confidentiality and then integrity and availability, the priority is often reversed in IACS environments: availability and the safety of physical processes come first; an unplanned standstill or a miscontrol can endanger people and plant. This very particularity is taken up by IEC 62443, which distributes responsibilities across operators, integrators and manufacturers and describes protection via zones and graduated security levels.
Outlook & recommendation. With IT/OT convergence and the NIS2 extension to industry and utilities, IACS move into the focus of regulated security. Since many of these systems are old, long-lived and not easily patchable, passive monitoring and segmentation are often the pragmatic route. Monitoring such environments — without disrupting operations — is a field of activity for NEOSEC.