ICS and OT Cyber Security Foundations
This ICS security training in Toronto introduces industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) to the people asked to protect them. Live sessions run on Eastern Time, so hydro, mining and manufacturing staff can attend around shift work.
You learn why availability and safety come before confidentiality, how the Purdue model organizes a plant network, and what a programmable logic controller actually does on the wire.
- Duration
- 6 weeks
- Format
- Live online, instructor-led
- Prerequisites
- None required
- Class size
- Capped at 12 learners
What you will be able to do
- Explain how an OT environment differs from an IT network in threat model, uptime tolerance and change control
- Map a site to Purdue model levels 0 through 5 and identify where the boundaries actually sit
- Identify PLCs, RTUs, HMIs, historians and engineering workstations from traffic and asset lists
- Describe what Modbus, DNP3 and OPC do, and why most industrial protocols carry no authentication
- Explain why patching a running turbine or pump station is a scheduling decision before it is a technical one
- Produce a basic asset inventory for a small control system without active scanning
- Recognize a safety instrumented system and treat it as out of bounds for routine security work
- Ask engineering the right questions before proposing any change to a control network
Course outline
6 modules
- Availability and safety ranked ahead of confidentiality
- Maintenance windows, outage costs and change freezes
- Equipment lifecycles measured in decades
- Consequence driven thinking: impact on the physical process
- Where standard IT advice actively causes harm in a plant
What you need before you start
- Comfort with basic networking: IP addressing, switches and firewalls
- A laptop that can run a packet capture tool and a browser
- No prior control systems experience needed
- A stable connection for live sessions on Eastern Time
Who this course is for
- IT staff who have been handed responsibility for a plant network
- Control engineers and technicians asked to take on security duties
- New OT security analysts at utilities, mining and manufacturing firms
- Consultants moving into industrial work from enterprise security
- Operations supervisors who need to understand what security teams are asking for
Where this leads
Prepares you for
Security+
Awarded by CompTIA
The course maps to several domains CompTIA tests in Security+, a reasonable first credential for OT staff. CompTIA sets that exam and awards the certificate, not this academy. You register and sit it separately.
Questions about this course
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Ready to launch your cyber security career?
Join the next live online cohort. No experience required, just bring the curiosity.