As industry continues to evolve it is important to remain focused on safety and security for control systems.  Richie Fortenberry is an expert in helping others connect the important dots that enable these systems to operate at extremely efficient levels.  Richie lays a foundation in this episode by zoning in on the importance of identifying and assessing initial hazards and failure modes.  By gaining an initial understanding of what threats exist you then can begin working on items to mitigate them.

From a security standpoint Richie does a fantastic job of keeping the focus of OT performance at the forefront while highlighting the IT methodology.  Richie even walks us through a demo that he built to expose certain areas of safety and security that is making an impact with many people.  He centers the demo around a safety PLC that is simulating a traffic camera system.  From there he shows how hackers could attack such a system and the chaos that it can cause.  It's led to great conversations with others around these concepts and is a direct way to tie the worlds together. 

Richie references several standards that help ensure systems have the right level of safety and security is specified.  He also references real world instances that happen every day and steps others can take to head them off.  He explains the topic of security by optimism and gives the leaders of industry areas to consider to make themselves better in the future.  Richie is a key expert in these areas and this episode is full of wisdom and insight that will create safe and secure control systems in the future.  Grab your notepad as this one will have you jotting down ideas from start to finish. 

Richie Fortenberry - Consulting Engineer/Operations Manager at Prism Systems

Host: Chris Grainger
Executive Producer: Adam Sheets
Podcast Editor: Andi Thrower

Prism Systems