The White House announced on Wednesday that the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cybersecurity Initiative has been expanded to include the chemical sector.

The ICS Cybersecurity Initiative was first announced in July 2021 — after the disruptive attack on Colonial Pipeline — and its goal is to improve critical infrastructure security by encouraging and facilitating the deployment of threat detection technologies and systems.

Chemical is the fourth sector added to the initiative, after electric, pipeline and water. Chemical organizations can analyze the best practices and lessons learned from these other sectors and create a cybersecurity action plan for the next 100 days.

The plan needs to focus on high-risk chemical facilities, and it needs to drive information sharing between the government and the chemical sector.

The government says it will not endorse or recommend any specific provider or technology. Instead, owners and operators are encouraged to deploy solutions based on their own risk assessment and cybersecurity posture.

The plan also needs to focus on the continuity of chemical production critical to national and economic security — the Biden-Harris administration highlights that the chemical sector produces disinfectants, personal care products, fertilizers, and energy sources.

It’s worth noting that sophisticated threat actors targeting chemical companies is not unheard of.

Several industry professionals have commented on the White House’s initiative…

Jerry Caponera, general manager, cyber risk, ThreatConnect:

Learn more about industrial cybersecurity at SecurityWeek’s ICS Cyber Security Conference

Padraic O’Reilly, co-founder and chief product officer, CyberSaint Security:

Chris Gray, AVP of cybersecurity, Deepwatch:

By Eduard Kovacs on Thu, 27 Oct 2022 11:46:22 +0000
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