A2LA Expands Accreditation Services to Support Industrial Cybersecurity Certification

What happened:

The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) has added Inspection Body (IB) and Certification Body (CB) accreditation to its offerings of ISASecure’s Automation and Control System Security Assurance (ACSSA) program.

The transfer will allow qualified organizations to evaluate and certify industrial facilities to internationally recognized ISA/IEC 62443 cybersecurity standards, which are commonly applied to the secure automation and control of industrial facilities.

Why it matters:

Cybersecurity is no longer a battle confined to IT networks as industrial operations become more interconnected.The fight against cybersecurity is no longer restricted to IT networks, as operations in industry are getting connected. Operational technology (OT) environments are increasingly becoming the target of cyberthreats for manufacturers, utilities, energy companies and critical infrastructure operators.

There is a growing emphasis on independent certification and assessment programs to ensure that organizations are implementing cybersecurity measures that are compliant with established industry standards. A2LA is helping to broaden the accreditation options for ACSSA to bring more qualified organisations to the market to evaluate cybersecurity readiness in industrial settings.

The development is also an indication of the increasing pressure on companies to provide third-party verification of cyber-resilience and compliance with customers, regulators, and stakeholders.

Industry context:

The importance of industrial cyber security is increasing to a strategic level for various industries from manufacturing to energy, pharmaceuticals to transportation. The reach of operational technology (OT) incidents keeps growing as OT systems become tightly integrated with enterprise networks and cloud-based applications.

ISA/IEC 62443 has become a popular set of standards for treating Cybersecurity risks within industrial environments. For many, the focus has been on securing individual products and systems, but there has been increasing attention on the cyber security maturity of facilities and processes.