Monday, December 23, 2013

Best wishes for 2014

As a very busy year comes to an end, I want to THANK YOU ALL for the interest in Standards like IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25, IEC 60870-5-104, … as well as your interest to discuss the many opportunities to use these standards and the challenges in the implementations and conformance tests.

More than 400 experts have been trained during 2013 in more than 20 courses all over. The attendees are really looking for more details and how to reach a higher level of interoperability. My long-term experience is growing quite fast … especially in the area of interoperability issues …

I wish you a healthy and successful year 2014 – especially that you can live in peace with your family, friends and all other people you have to meet in your life.

I look forward to working with you next year … especially when you have any issue regarding IEC 61850, IEC … interoperability.

Please take some time to relax and re-charge your batteries.

We are all doing fine … just cut the lawn this afternoon (Dec. 23, 2013) … it was quite warm here in Karlsruhe: 13 °C … no snow and ice until 2014 !!

Best Regards,
Your Karlheinz Schwarz

SystemCorp Embedded Technology offers Support for IEC 61850 Edition 1 and Edition 2

This is a real good Christmas present: Version 2 of the IEC 61850 Protocol Integration Stack (PIS-10) from SystemCorp is now available!

Version 2 offers support for IEC 61850 Edition 1 and Edition 2 of the core documents (parts 6, 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4, 7-410, 8-1, …). The solution supports users to integrate Server and Client as well as publisher and subscriber functionality into their own applications easily.

Click HERE for more details.

A new ICD Designer is available as well - new Features are:

  • Add customized logical nodes
  • Edition 1 and Edition 2 Support
  • Export/Import DAID templates
  • GOOSE Subscription - compatible with Siemens DIGSI 
  • Multiple Access Point
  • Unicode Support
  • Client CID File Designer
  • Quick Validate* function for design

Click HERE for more details of the new ICD Designer.

NettedAutomation is preparing updated and enhanced demonstration examples for the PIS-10 DLL and for the Beck IPC@Chip platform by mid of January 2014.

Stay tuned to this blog to get the latest information also in 2014.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Workshop IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 und IEC 60870-5-104 am 30. Januar 2014

IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 und IEC 60870-5-104 in Aktion:

Beck IPC lädt zu einem Workshop “com.tom-Anwendungen für Überwachungs- und Steuerungsaufgaben“ am 30.01.2014 ein

Beck IPC bietet auf der Basis der Beck IPC com.tom-Geräte einen short-time-to-market Schnelleinstieg in die Normenreihen IEC 61850, IEC 61400-25 und IEC 60870-5-104. Wenn Sie die geballte Kombination von bewährten Technologien wie embedded controller sowie genormtem und sicherem Informationsaustausch für den einfachsten, schnellsten und kostengünstigsten Einstieg in diese und andere Normen kennenlernen möchten, dann besuchen Sie am 30. Januar 2014 diesen Workshop.

Die Lösungen sind geeignet für alle Anwendungen, in denen sowohl separate Protokolle benötigt werden als auch für Gateways zwischen den verschiedenen Protokollen.

Die Teilnahme ist kostenlos.

Der Workshop wird von Beck IPC in Zusammenarbeit mit NettedAutomation GmbH durchgeführt.

Ort: Wetzlar | Zeit: 10:00 Uhr – 16:00 Uhr

Klicken Sie hier für das Programm und die Anmeldeinformation

IEC 61400-25-2 Edition -- Committee Draft for Vote available

IEC 61400-25-2 Edition 2 (88/461/CDV):
Wind turbines – Part 25-2: Communications for monitoring and control of wind power plants – Information models

The Committee Draft for Vote is out for comments until January 24, 2014. If you want to comment on the document, please contact your TC 88 National Committee: Membership 

The main improvements are related to the following aspects:

  • Harmonization with Common Data Classes in Edition 2 of IEC 61850-7-3.
  • Harmonization with Logical node classes in Edition 2 of IEC 61850-7-4.
  • Harmonization with Information models in IEC 61850-7-410, and -420.
  • Reduction of overlap between standards and simplification by increased referencing
  • Extension of Data objects for operation of smart grids (in US and other areas)
  • Extended and enhanced semantics for existing data objects
  • Taking the tissues into account

A complete harmonization with IEC 61850 is underway. As a matter of fact you could implement all crucial aspects of IEC 61400-25 with current IEC 61850 implementations. The full harmonization of IEC 61400-24-2 with IEC 61850 Edition 2 of the core parts (7-1, 7-2, 7-3, 7-4, 8-1, …) is planned as a next step (edition 3 of IEC 61400-25-2).

IEC 61850 and IEC61400-25 are THE standard series for Power Systems.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Vulnerabilities in RuggedCom ROS-based Devices

RuggedCom switches and serial-to-Ethernet devices are used to connect devices that operate in harsh environments such as electric utility substations and traffic control cabinets.
Potential vulnerabilities in the web server’s authentication of the affected products might allow attackers to gain administrative access to the web interface over the network without authentication or unprivileged users to perform privilege escalation.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS
- RuggedCom devices with ROS version < ROS v3.12.2

RuggedCom and Siemens recommend upgrading to the current firmware version ROS v.3.12.2 which fixes the potential vulnerabilities.

Click HERE for more details.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

BSI veröffentlicht ICS-Security-Kompendium für industrielle Automatisierungssysteme

Das Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) hat ein umfangreiches Kompendium zur Sicherheit in industriellen Automatisierungssystemen (ICS) veröffentlicht. Das Kompendium sollte jedem systemverantwortlichen Manager unbedingt als Weihnachtsgeschenk überreicht werden! Warum? Weil es einen Überblick über wichtige Notwendigkeiten und Lösungswege für mehr Sicherheit aufzeigt und das Bewusstsein für die zunehmenden “Angriffe” auf die kritischen Infrastrukturen unserer Gesellschaft schärfen will. Das Kompendium eignet sich sicher für den Einstieg in dieses wichtige Thema!

Es darf natürlich nicht beim Lesen bleiben – je nach Situation sollten zeitnahe Aktivitäten starten oder verstärkt werden.

HIER Klicken um das Kompendium herunterzuladen.