As your industrial Ethernet network develops into a communications infrastructure, monitoring and supervising it becomes more challenging. You can no longer get it done efficiently or accurately using "sneakernet" or with local workstations managing production cells. Good network management plays a key role in maintaining high system reliability. It also makes you a lot more productive when it's time to do network updates, changes and audits. Find out how one of the largest control networks ever built in the Middle East uses network management software to meet its availability and efficiency requirements.

One of the indicators that it's time to update your network design is when troubleshooting issues take too long and having a significant impact on production. That was one of the issues Johnson Controls' Automotive Experience Group was facing when it decided its "one size fits all" flat network infrastructure had to change.

You may have heard some buzz in the press (both US and International) about the release of the Cybersecurity Framework Draft from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). However, you may not know much about its background. And you probably don't know what it may mean to you as a control or security professional. This blog post will give you a high level overview of the genesis of this document and some handy points of reference. 

Recently we introduced a new industrial Ethernet cable to the market with a techy name, "DataTuff TC Cat 5e Cord Sets for 600V Cable Trays". While I am not a fan of the name, I am impressed with what this puppy can do. If your application is in heavy industry, or you just want to learn about a very large and very feature-rich Ethernet cord set, I encourage you to read on.

In last week's Practical SCADA Security blog, I discussed how the new vulnerabilities discovered in DNP3 SCADA masters are carving big holes in the NERC's concept of the Electronic Security Perimeter (ESP). Dale Peterson started the ball rolling in his blog "Why the Crain/Sistrunk Vulnerabilities are a Big Deal". Then Darren Highfill posted a blog explaining that the vulnerabilities don't even require the attacker climb a fence.