As there is still confusion about the cyber security of process sensors and other Purdue Reference Model Level 0,1 field devices, I was asked to review NIST Special Publication (SP) 1800-32 “Securing Distributed Energy Resources: An Example of Industrial Internet of Things Cybersecurity” for applicability to legacy process sensors. The title of SP 1800-32 is misleading as the Distributed Energy Resources use case is for securing residential and small business connections for rooftop solar, and not for an IIoT use case.
Either NIST SP1800-32 should be renamed to IoT (not IIoT) or use a different use case that is germane to IIoT. In either case, efforts are underway to address the cyber security gap in process sensors that affect the safety and security in every sector that uses process sensors.
