CSI Academy · Practitioner Course
Cybersecurity in Open Architectures
IEC 62443-aligned security architecture, implementation, and operations for OPA systems — zones and conduits, OPC UA security, certificate management, and the operational program that keeps a secure design secure.
Curriculum
15 lessons across three parts
Part 1 — Framework and Architecture
The First Question Every Skeptic Asks
Security architecture, implementation, and operations for OPA systems.
- The question, stated fairly
- What openness actually changes
- Course roadmap
IEC 62443 in Plain Terms
The governing framework for industrial automation security.
- Roles: asset owner, integrator, product supplier
- Security levels: capability against a defined adversary
- How this course uses the framework
The O-PAS Security Baseline
The standard treats security as intrinsic, not optional.
- What the baseline requires of components
- What the baseline leaves to you
- Baseline understood, architecture next
Zones and Conduits
Segmentation quality decides containment.
- Grouping by consequence
- Engineering the conduits
- Documenting and defending the design
Security Architecture Alongside Control Architecture
Security bolted on later costs more and protects less.
- Node allocation and zone alignment
- Placing the advanced computing platform
- The co-designed record and what comes next
Part 2 — The Machinery of Trust
The OPC UA Security Model
OPC UA carries the architecture's communications.
- Application identity: certificates before conversations
- User authorisation: who may do what
- Model in hand, configuration next
Configuring OPC UA Security in Practice
Configuration is where protection becomes real or does not.
- Set the policy floor and close the basement
- Trust configuration done properly
- Verify it, then keep it
PKI Fundamentals for OT Engineers
Certificates everywhere imply an infrastructure behind them.
- Key pairs and what a certificate actually is
- The plant CA design decision
- From concepts to lifecycle
Certificate Lifecycle Management
Issuance, distribution, renewal, revocation, retirement: a cycle.
- The certificate inventory
- Renewal without drama
- The program, assembled
Identity and Access Across Multi-Vendor Components
Users and roles spanning components from many suppliers.
- Roles first, accounts second
- The hard populations: shared consoles and vendor access
- Identity settled, networks next
Network Security
Enforcement at boundaries, hygiene within zones, eyes on everything.
- Boundary enforcement: conduits become configuration
- Hygiene within zones
- The fabric, complete
Part 3 — Buying, Proving, and Operating
Security in Procurement
Security requirements travel in the requisitions, or not at all.
- Component security requirements that verify
- Vulnerability handling and the support tail
- Bought, now prove it
Security FAT and SAT
Security proven at the same gates as function.
- Component security FAT
- Testing the failure paths deliberately
- Closure, evidence, and the handover to operations
Operating Securely
Posture decays by default; the program is the counterforce.
- Vulnerability and patch management, OT reality
- Incident response the plant has rehearsed
- The program, and the course, assembled
Case Study and Capstone Design
A composite security architecture walked end to end.
- The case: a food and beverage plant modernisation
- What testing and year one proved
- Your capstone design
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Also included with CSI EPC Practitioner certification enrollment.
Questions? trevor@csi-automation.com
Cybersecurity in Open Architectures
Format
Self-paced video lessons
Duration
15 lessons · approximately 2 hours
Level
Practitioner — assumes DCS engineering background
Capstone
Zone-and-conduit design for a supplied facility
Questions
trevor@csi-automation.com
OPA Architecture in Practice
Best taken after the architecture course — security here is designed alongside the control architecture, not after it.
OPA Architecture in Practice →CSI Academy
All training programs
O-PAS™ and Open Process Automation™ are trademarks of The Open Group. CSI is an independent commercial licensee of the O-PAS Standard. References to O-PAS do not imply certification or endorsement by The Open Group.