10:00 AM – 10:25 AM
OT Defense in Depth: Diversity as the Foundation for Resilient Process Safety
Multiple layers of protection are only effective when a single vulnerability cannot undermine them all. This presentation focuses on diversity: deliberately combining different technologies, protection principles and independent systems to reduce shared vulnerabilities.
We explore how this approach can strengthen the resilience of OT environments, considering the separation of process control and safety functions, controlled communication, and the independence of operator interfaces and visualization. Diversity requires more than selecting different vendors: shared software, infrastructure and management environments also determine how independent protection layers truly are.
A safety related HMI provides a practical example of the connection between cybersecurity and functional safety. How can operators know that safety-critical information is displayed correctly? And how can safety-related actions, such as activating bypasses, be performed in a controlled manner? We discuss how independent display monitoring and controlled interaction with the safety system fit within a broader defense-in-depth architecture.
Through practical scenarios, we highlight where diversity adds value and which dependencies require attention. Participants will gain practical guidance for assessing their OT architecture and strengthening cybersecurity, process safety and safe operator interaction together.
Speaker: Thomas Königstein, Strategic Sales Development Manager genoa GmbH
This lecture is in English.