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ISA Director of Strategic Initiatives Marty Edwards is awarded SANS Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Lifetime Achievement Award

  • March 19, 2019
  • Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

 This week at the SANS ICS Security Summit ISA's Director of Strategic Initiatives, Marty Edwards was honored by his peers in the ICS security community with the SANS ICS Lifetime Achievement Award.

This award recognizes individuals who have contributed exceptional efforts to enhance the security of industrial control systems on an international scale, and who actively strive to bridge the gap between information technology and operations technology. Through educational contributions to the community, honorees have significantly increased the awareness of risks to industrial control systems and fostered the idea that cyber secure ICS implementations and defense in ICS are achievable.

"Marty's unwavering commitment to his mission to help industries mature and better defend ICS from evolving cybersecurity threats continues to have an unmistakably positive effect on society," said Mike Assante, director of critical infrastructure and lead for the ICS Curriculum at SANS Institute. "His active involvement in the community has made industrial cybersecurity a mainstream topic worthy of attention at the highest-levels of government and with public and private companies alike."

As Director of Strategic Initiatives at the International Society of Automation (ISA), Edwards works with government and industry leaders throughout the world to broaden understanding and implementation of the ISA/IEC 62443 cybersecurity standards. These internationally recognized standards are key components of The Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (updated April 2018), a how-to guide developed through the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help strengthen the cyber defenses of critical infrastructure.

Prior to joining ISA in mid-2017, Edwards-a 25-year industry veteran-was the longest-serving Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT.) Under his leadership, the ICS-CERT was awarded the 2013 SC Magazine Security Team of the Year Award and was named as a finalist in the Community Awareness category in the 2015 Government Information Security Leadership Awards (GISLA.)

Edwards also served as a program manager focused on control systems security at the Idaho National Laboratory and has held a variety of roles in the instrumentation and automation fields. Edwards holds a diploma of technology in Process Control and Industrial Automation (Magna cum Laude) from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), and in 2015 received the institute's Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2016, Edwards was recognized by FCW in its "Federal 100 Awards" as being one of the top IT professionals in the U.S. federal government.

Edwards also currently serves as the Managing Director of the Automation Federation, an association of non-profit member organizations dedicated to fostering economic growth and manufacturing innovation by helping industry harness the immense capabilities and potential of automation technologies and applications. The Automation Federation was founded by the ISA in 2006.

More about ISA99/IEC 62443

Developed by leading international cybersecurity experts from industry, government and academia, ISA/IEC 62443 is a flexible framework for preventing and limiting cyber damage to industrial control systems and networks.

Because most industrial automation and control systems are not designed to ensure resilience against cyber warfare, a cyberattack can impair and disable safe operations of industrial facilities. The consequences—which can include plant shutdowns, widespread power blackouts, explosions, chemical leaks, and more—can place national and economic security as well as lives, personal safety and the environment at risk.

ISA/IEC 62443 enables owners and operators of critical infrastructure to achieve and maintain security improvements through a lifecycle that integrates design, implementation, monitoring and continuous improvement.

For more information

To learn more about IEC 62443, ISA's Security Lifecycle Training Program, and ISA's wide range of industrial cybersecurity resources, contact Heidi Cooke, Sr. Learning Consultant, at +1 -919-990-9405 or via email at hcooke@isa.org.

About ISA

The International Society of Automation (www.isa.org) is a nonprofit professional association that sets the standard for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety, and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure. Founded in 1945, ISA develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 40,000 members and 400,000 customers around the world.

ISA owns Automation.com, a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org), an association of non-profit organizations serving as "The Voice of Automation." Through a wholly owned subsidiary, ISA bridges the gap between standards and their implementation with the ISA Security Compliance Institute (www.isasecure.org) and the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute (www.isa100wci.org).