Background
The four participating Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), FieldComm Group, ODVA, OPC Foundation, and PI, have agreed to continue and extend their cooperation on selected topics related to industrial security.
This next phase builds on the successful publication of the technical paper “Secure Deployment of Industrial Communication Protocols” and aims to further support harmonized, interoperable, and practical security approaches across industrial communication ecosystems.
Why This Work Is Important
Operators of industrial plants require concepts, workflows, and technical approaches that enable secure operation in an increasingly digitalized industrial environment. As industrial automation systems become more connected, security topics can no longer be addressed from the perspective of individual technologies alone.
Instead, security must be approached from an ecosystem perspective, with common understanding and coordinated approaches across devices, systems, infrastructure, and communication technologies.
Scope of Work
The Industrial Security Harmonization Group (ISHG) will focus on the following topics:
- Interpretation and specification of SDO-wide solutions based on the results of the NAMUR/ZVEI group defining AIMS use cases.
- Creation of an SDO-wide specification for Identity and Access Management for OT devices, building on the work of NAMUR NE201.
- Verify how the technical paper “Secure Deployment of Industrial Communication Protocols” can be driven towards standardization.
Call for Participation
Participation in the ISHG is open to experts from all member companies of the participating SDOs.
The project is administered under PI according to the SDO cooperation agreement. Mr. Simon Merklin from Endress+Hauser has been nominated to lead the technical joint working group and has accepted this appointment. Mr. Mirko Brcic from Endress+Hauser, Mr. Frank Fengler from ABB, and Mr. Jack Visoky from Rockwell Automation have agreed to co-lead this working group.
Each participating SDO will make an internal announcement and invite its member companies to nominate experts for participation in the technical joint working group.
Experts Being Sought
We are looking for specialists from system manufacturers, infrastructure providers, device manufacturers, and other relevant member companies who are willing to actively contribute to the topics described above.
Participants should bring technical expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Industrial communication protocols
- Industrial cybersecurity workflows
- Identity and Access Management for industrial environments
- Asset and instrumentation management systems
- Standardization and specification work
Kick-Off
A virtual kick-off meeting of the ISHG was held on August 27, 2026. If an expert was unable to attend, that does not in any way disqualify them from participating. Experts should indicate their interest to participate by emailing Mr. Simon Merklin at simon[DOT]merklin[AT]endress[DOT]com.