Schneider Electric : How to manage cybersecurity for switchgear and controlgear

Digital transformation is reshaping how businesses are operating and is opening opportunities for more efficiency and better sustainability. Data plays a crucial role in enabling all those applications. This applies to switchgear and controlgear, where the collected data can help improve the safety and availability of electric distribution systems and processes, leading to better energy efficiency.

For example, the remote monitoring of the fluctuation of the current flowing through a circuit breaker allows multiple new information services for better managing the protection and the use of the building.

• The growing use of communication technologies to collect, transmit and leverage the data produced by switchgear and controlgear naturally implies considering associated cybersecurity risks and protective measures.
• In addition, in the context of the convergence between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), information technology is more and more interconnected to and even integrated into industrial systems, increasing the cyber risk.
• Whatever the domain or sector for IT or OT, cybersecurity risk is managed with the 3 pillars principle, following a defense in-depth approach, see Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Cybersecurity Pillars

Why the safety and the continuity of operations are so important?

Very often, switchgear, such as circuit breakers, or controlgear, such as overload relays or proximity switches, are equipped with a data communication interface. They can connect to a logic controller, display, or SCADA systems, with local and remote connectivity for giving access to data such as actual power supply values, monitoring data, data logging, and remote upgrade, or to execute incoming orders and commends

The major potential risks are about:

• Integrity: risk of unintended operation of the switching device or the control device, which can lead to hazardous situations
• Availability: risk of unavailability of the protective or sensing functions (e.g., overcurrent, earth leakage, guard locking, etc.)

Integrity and availability contribute directly to the safety and continuity of critical activities such as healthcare, industrial plants, and infrastructures.

Why product standards such as IEC 63208 are needed?

ISO/IEC 27001 and its family of standards are used in many organizations for managing the cybersecurity of information systems and general business. The cybersecurity of industrial control systems is more focused on maintaining its main functionalities' integrity and availability. IEC 62443 is currently specialized in the generic requirements for complete process control systems.

As for other horizontal aspects such as insulation coordination, the implementation of such generic aspects in products requires specific and appropriate requirements for their implementation and proper testing for supporting their conformity evaluation.

Following this approach, IEC 63208 contributes to the cybersecurity of electrical distribution boards and machinery with secured power control and control switching devices. As an example, the principle of systematic and uniformed security level requirements SL-1 to SL-4 of IEC 62443-4-2 for all components of a control system is not relevant for switchgear and controlgear because of their associated cybersecurity risks mainly depending on their specific context, their levels of functionality and their various levels of exposure.

Learn more

IEC 63208 intends to develop awareness about security aspects and provides recommendations guidance for minimum cybersecurity requirements for switchgear and controlgear based on ISO 27001 and IEC 62443 series depending on these conditions. To learn more, visit our cybersecurity solutions page.