The International Society of Automation (ISA) just hosted its second-annual OT Cybersecurity Summit in London on 18-19 June 2024—and what an event it was!

Read on for a summary of what has quickly become the industry's leading event for industrial cybersecurity and technical content surrounding the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards. 

Intelligence Evolution and Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity

The OT Cybersecurity Summit featured two content tracks on intelligence evolution and internet of things (IoT) cybersecurity, with a total of 44 speakers across 34 sessions.

Keynote sessions kicked off each day, with Sarah Fluchs, chief technology officer of admeritia GmbH, discussing what she called the "winds of change" of cyber regulation to include secure by design principles; and Simon Hodgkinson, formerly chief information security officer of BP, sharing his perspectives on cybersecurity as a business risk on par with safety. 

"Cyber is not special. We are just another business risk. Having a speak-up culture, where employees are empowered to share near misses and safety concerns, is transformational."
– Simon Hodgkinson

Cybersecurity Escape Room

Where else can you find a virtual escape room specifically targeted to the training needs of OT cybersecurity and automation engineers? Available exclusively at the OT Cybersecurity Summit, an awesome escape room experience was programmed by the advanced visualizations team at Visco to walk through a ransomware attack on an offshore oil and gas production unit.

Many attendees cited this experience as one of the highlights of the event. 

ICS4ICS Workshop

Incident Command System for Industrial Control Systems (ICS4ICS) is a program that is designed to improve cybersecurity incident response efforts by offering workshops and training on emergency cyber response. ICS4ICS has hosted workshops all over the world to share its training exercises.

Since the program was created by the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (ISAGCA), including an ICS4ICS workshop in the overall OT Cybersecurity Summit was part of demonstrating full scope of ISA's resources, programs and services in support of the industry. 

OT Cybersecurity Training

ISA offered its two most popular training courses as an add on for those interested in deepening their knowledge of the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards: 

• Using the ISA/IEC 62443 Standards to Secure Your Control Systems (IC32)
• Assessing the Cybersecurity of New Existing IACS Systems (IC33) 
  

Exhibit

Fourteen sponsors joined the OT Cybersecurity Summit in 2024 - more than double the number that exhibited in the event's first year.

ISA extends its thanks to this group for their support, which has made this event possible.  

Attendee Feedback

Positive feedback is always nice to hear, and attendees at the OT Cybersecurity Summit had lots of kind words: 

• “Cybersecurity is really a team sport, so there needs to be more ongoing collaboration between product vendors and asset owners. This event provides just the right environment for these conversations.”
• “Being part of ISA is all about knowledge sharing, community and collaboration. The collaborative community sets ISA events apart – the event doesn’t ‘end’ because we stay in touch and continue to work throughout the year to help solve some of the big challenges in cybersecurity.”
• “I love ISA events! The people are awesome – they are warm-hearted, intellectual and passionate about engineering. They are people that definitely know their stuff, but they aren’t know-it-alls, so it’s a really cool environment.”

OT Cybersecurity Summit 2025 in Belgium

Mark your calendars now - OT Cybersecurity Summit is coming to Brussels, Belgium, in 2025! Save the date for 17-19 June, and check back at otcs.isa.org for more details coming soon.