Honeywell announced it has joined the Global Cybersecurity Alliance (GCA), created by the International Society of Automation (ISA), as a founding member. The company will collaborate with GCA participants — from other technology providers and integrators to end users and government agencies — to build awareness, provide education, share best practices, and accelerate the development and adoption of cybersecurity standards.
“Cybersecurity is the great equalizer for any company,” said Matthew Bohne, vice president and chief product security officer, Honeywell Building Technologies. “All companies should thoughtfully incorporate cybersecurity into the products and services they sell. The entire industry and connected world at large needs to operate with the confidence that our digital infrastructure is robust and secure, whether it’s utilities or facilities and even specific products we use everyday. This is core to our collective future, and the GCA provides the platform and partnership to make it happen.”
Honeywell’s involvement with the ISA GCA builds on decades of work, both with ISA and internally, to protect customers and technologies from on- and offline threats. This includes being a founding member of the ISA Security Compliance Institute, which oversees product certification for ISA/IEC 62443 – a series of standards adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and endorsed by the United Nations for the cybersecurity lifecycle of industrial control devices and systems. Honeywell is an industry leader in control system cybersecurity and has certified more products to the ISA/IEC 62443 standards than any other global supplier.
“The ISA/IEC 62443 standards outline what’s needed to secure automation systems,” said Mary Ramsey, ISA executive director. “Now we need to move from “what” to “how,” providing the practical direction, tools and support to guide how the standards are applied. The involvement of industry leaders is vital to make this happen. Honeywell will help build the coalition and momentum needed to safeguard essential-yet-often-vulnerable technology.”
Along with its involvement in associations and standards bodies such as ISA, Honeywell helps its customers protect people, processes and assets from cyber intrusion and breaches of information every day. The company’s more than 250 cybersecurity experts continually review and update connected hardware and software to minimize risk. They also provide services that include vulnerability assessments, threat monitoring and post-incident recovery.
