The present invention addresses the novel problem of protecting against threats that can arise as a result of the development of networked or intelligent control devices and control systems. This controller system includes: a control unit that executes a control operation for controlling a control target; and a security unit that is connected to the control unit and oversees and manages security functions for the controller system. The security unit includes a detection means that detects whether any unauthorized intrusion into the controller system has occurred. The control unit includes a command transmission means that transmits commands for changing the behavior of the detection means of the security unit.

An execution environment for executing an event-oriented control program of a programmable logic controller, wherein the control program comprises a plurality of functional modules to be successively executed, is configured to execute the functional modules in an event-controlled manner on the occurrence of activation events that are each associated with the individual functional modules. In this respect, the individual activation events of the functional modules to be successively executed form an event chain. The execution environment comprises a monitoring module for monitoring an execution duration of the functional modules of the event chain, wherein the monitoring module is configured to check the execution duration for an exceeding of a predefined time duration.

A controller system according to the present invention includes: a control unit that executes control calculation for controlling a control target; a security unit that is connected to the control unit and that is in charge of security functions for a controller system; an attack pattern creation part for acquiring setting information in the controller system and creating an attack pattern for the controller system on the basis of the acquired setting information; and an attack execution part for executing an attack on the controller system according to the created attack pattern and evaluating whether or not the security functions set in the controller system are valid on the basis of the behavior of the controller system in response to the attack.

A control system controls access to data in a device group of devices that communicate with one another. The control system includes a first device of the devices and that receives, in a removable manner, a storage medium in which data is storable, and one or more second devices of the devices. Each member of the devices and the storage medium includes a storage region that retains a list including relevant information associated with each of the members, and a verifier that verifies the relevant information of each of other members included in the list retained in the storage region against the relevant information of each of the other members obtained from each of the other members. The first device accesses the data stored in the storage medium when a result of verification obtained by the verifier of each of the other members but the first device satisfies a condition.

A programmable display device includes: an obtaining section for obtaining data; a setting accepting section for accepting, via a setting screen displayed in response to predetermined operation, a process setting for a content of a process to be executed for the data and information for executing the process; and a process executing section for executing the process in accordance with the process setting, the setting accepting section accepting the process setting in a state where the obtaining section is executing the obtaining of the data.

The invention relates to marine vessel safety system which ensures that a marine vessel enters a safe state in the event of at least one malfunction in any vessel operation systems and components of the marine vessel. The marine vessel safety system comprises at least one vessel monitoring system, at least one malfunction evaluation system and a safe-state control system.

Apparatus and associated methods relate to a safety control system having a processor that (1) automatically interrogates a portable data storage device, (2) determines whether a configuration profile of the safety control system matches a stored configuration profile in the portable data storage device, (3) obtains network settings of the safety control system, and (4) stores network settings into the portable data storage device. In an illustrative example, a safety control system may include a processor designed to perform operations to configure the safety control system with a configuration profile stored in the portable data storage device or download network settings of the safety control system to the portable data storage device under some predetermined conditions. By using the above method, the safety control system may be quickly configured, and network settings may be easily obtained and backed up.

A control system including a controller system and a support device is provided. The controller system controls a control target. The support device supports setting of the controller system. The support device includes a system-configuration input part, a threat analysis database, a threat-scenario creating part, a countermeasure database, a countermeasure creating part, and a security setting part. The countermeasure creating part creates a countermeasure scenario containing a countermeasure for each of protected assets of the controller system according to a threat scenario and countermeasures of the countermeasure database.

A system and method is provided that facilitates threat impact characterization. The system may include a replica programmable logic controller (PLC) that corresponds to a production PLC in a production system and that may be configured to operate at an accelerated processing speed that is at least two times faster than a processing speed of the production PLC. The system may also include a data processing system configured to communicate with the replica PLC when executing malware infected PLC firmware and generate a simulation of the production system based on a virtual model of the production system operating at an accelerated processing speed that is at least two times faster than a processing speed of the physical production system. The simulation may include accelerated simulation of the production PLC based on communication with the replica PLC using the malware infected PLC firmware. The data processing system may also monitor: outputs from the replica PLC and the simulation of the production system to determine a possible threat to a hardware component of the production system caused by the production PLC executing the infected PLC firmware rather than a non-infected PLC firmware; and output data indicative of the possible threat thorough a display device.

In some embodiments, a controller is configured to be operably coupled to a series of safety relays. Each safety relay is coupled to a machine from a plurality of machines. The controller is configured to receive a signal indicative of a potential collision between any machine from the plurality of machines that is coupled to the at least one of the safety relays that was activated. The controller is configured to send, in response to the signal indicative of the potential collision, a signal to at least one of the safety relays from the series of safety relays to activate the at least one of the safety relays, thereby stopping motion of any machine from the plurality of machines that is coupled to the at least one of the safety relays that was activated.