PCSF
From SCADApedia
The Process Control Systems Forum (PCSF) stated mission is "to accelerate the design, development, and deployment of more secure control and legacy systems." PCSF is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but it is governed by a board that includes industry, academia and government participants. Founded in 2005, PCSF's major accomplishment has been a set of annual meetings that serve as an effective means for control system security participants to share information and learn about current efforts in this area.
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History and Governance
PCSF was founded by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate in 2005, and subsequently responsibility was transferred to the DHS National Cyber Security Division.
The PCSF is led by a Governing Board with a member from the following sectors or organizations: Government, Academia, National Lab, Electric, Chemical, Water, Oil/Gas, and Vendor. The day to day operations of PCSF are performed by Noblis, formerly known as Mitretek.
Of course DHS as the funding organization has a large impact on PCSF activities.
Annual Meeting
The PCSF annual meeting has become one of the largest gatherings of control system security community in the US. It has drawn a diverse crowd of over two hundred people representing vendors, asset owners, consultants, academia and government. A portion of the participants are from outside the US.
The annual meeting is an opportunity to learn the latest activity in control system security in one place in one week. Many related standards activities and industry efforts plan meetings around PCSF to take advantage of the large gatherings of members.
The format and agenda of the annual meeting has changed over the years. In 2007 PCSF experimented with a Solutions Track day where vendors paired with asset owners where encouraged to present security solutions. While this had more commercialism than seen in past years, it was well received and is being repeated at the 2008 event.
The 2008 Annual Meeting is scheduled for August 26 - 28 in La Jolla, California, which is a suburb of San Diego.
Working Groups / Interest Groups
During the early years there was an emphasis on creating Working Groups and Interest Groups that would meet between annual meetings and work on a set of problems. While many of these groups were created, and some met, there was little to show from the groups, primarily due to lack of participation between annual meetings. They have been largely abandoned and no longer have a prominent place in the PCSF program.
Probably the biggest Working Group success was a combined glossary from the Standards Awareness Working Group. This document combines the definitions of control system security terms from 17 different documents. It was hoped that new efforts would leverage this glossary and existing efforts would consider using common definitions.
The SCADA Cyber Self Assessment Working Group is an exception that met on a regular basis and issued some reports.
