An April 2019 report from the Institute of Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) makes the point that even though software ‘runs the world’, software security is an afterthought across virtually all industries.
The report states that this lack of software security is actually a National Threat given that this…
IEC 61508 Certification is a Third-Party Validation against the standard’s requirements, comprising of:
To achieve an…
The ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 standards define an alarm as an “audible and/or visible means of indicating to the operator an equipment malfunction, process deviation, or abnormal condition requiring a timely response”. One of the reasons why alarm systems are out of control (alarm overload, nuisance alarms)…
IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 functional safety standards allow Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) to be used four ways by end users:
Last Saturday, I read an article about hackers who were behind at least two potentially fatal intrusions on oil and gas industrial facilities (Yes I read cyber articles on the weekend 
). Besides the fact that I enjoy learning about cybersecurity on my…
IEC 61508 functional safety standard indicates Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) needs to be evaluated by three design barriers:
Systematic Capability is achieved when the equipment…
Information Technology (IT) is the personnel, hardware, and software that controls non-physical devices and/or processes such as websites, financial data, personal information, etc.
Operation Technology (OT) is the personnel, hardware, and software that controls physical devices and/or processes such as manufacturing, oil & gas, power, etc. Today, OT has many…
The IEC 61511 standard recommends the use of a functional safety lifecycle. Any safety lifecycle can be used, but the standard lays out a process which can be divided into three main classifications as an example.
The lifecycle is set up like this:
I have received several calls lately to our Australia / New Zealand office about whether it is acceptable to use published failure rates that seem too good to be true.
The person calling is usually doing a SIL verification calculation for an operating plant or for an…
IEC 61511: 2016 Process Industry Sector
IEC 61511 is a technical standard that sets out practices in the engineering of systems that ensure the safety of an industrial process through the use of instrumentation. It entails requirements for users of process control and instrumentation for component / element or sub-system safety.…
The IEC 61508 standard recommends the use of a functional safety lifecycle. Any safety lifecycle can be used, but the standard does lay out a nominal 16-step process which can be divided into three main classifications as an example.
The Analysis phase of the lifecycle deals with gathering background…
If you’ve got lots of proven field history for a product, you should be able to claim that good work and get your product certified for use in functional safety applications. It is certainly still a challenge, but it is easier than certifying a new product. The…
In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety. We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.
IEC 61508: 2010 International Performance-Based Standard
The
All data breaches expose some type of IT (Information Technology) or OT (Operating Technology) system vulnerability. Cybersecurity professionals then need to evaluate and determine appropriate responses for themselves and their clients. It might be patching software, revising work processes or altering incident response techniques.
A Safety Function is the action of a collection of equipment to implement automatic mitigation of a particular hazard. It is the job of the Safety Instrumented Function (SIF).
Some examples of common Safety Functions: