Securing a control system: experiences from ISO 27001 implementation

Recent incidents of breaches, in control systems in specific and information systems in general, have emphasized the importance of security and operational continuity in achieving the quality objectives of an organization, and the safety of its personnel and infrastructure. However, security and disaster recovery are either completely ignored or given a low priority during the design and development of an accelerator control system, the underlying technologies, and the overlaid applications. This leads to an operational facility that is easy to breach, and difficult to recover. Retrofitting security into a control system becomes much more difficult during operations. In this paper we describe our experiences with implementing ISO/IEC 27001 Standard for information security at the Electronics Department of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) located on the campus of Michigan State University. We describe our risk assessment methodology, the identified risks, the selected controls, their implementation, and our documentation structure. We also report the current status of the project. We conclude with the challenges faced and the lessons learnt. (authors)