The report and certificates from UL Solutions, following testing in accordance with IEC 62443, confirm the ETG’s statements: EtherCAT technology already meets the requirements for systems exposed to cyber attacks corresponding to Security Level 2 without any modifications. In its European version IEC 62443, the international standard for cyber security of industrial control systems, will also form the basis for the European Cyber Resilience Act. Furthermore, the investigations show that no hardware changes are necessary for higher security requirements. With targeted software enhancements, higher security levels can also be achieved based on the EtherCAT system.
Evaluation of different scenarios
UL mapped all 100+ System Requirements (SR) of IEC 62443-3-3 to three typical EtherCAT systems with different threat scenarios and evaluated the degree of compliance achieved by EtherCAT.
“We at UL Solutions were delighted to work with an industrial protocol which has security capabilities and enablement-by-design as well as hardware implemented security, which is second-to-none in the category of industrial protocols”, says Alexander W. Koehler, S&S Principal Security Advisor for Cybersecurity at UL Solutions. “IT and OT-security have not been best friends in the past. IT security requirements have often been driven by typical short product lifecycles of office worker equipment, which contrast with industrial equipment with long lifecycles. In consequence there are still many products in the industrial field without or weak security built in, labelled as legacy products. EtherCAT is a positive exception here.”
Dr. Guido Beckmann, Chair of the Technical Committee of the EtherCAT Technology Group: “The results of the extensive investigations confirm the ETG’s assessment: EtherCAT already provides a high level of cyber security protection for industrial applications today. The tested and documented features and measures form the basis for the recommendations and specifications we are developing for manufacturers and users of EtherCAT devices.”
