BECKHOFF IPC-Security - Manual (Page 19)

Control Panel. You should control access to these USB ports and also control which USB sticks can be
attached to the industrial controller.
Please see chapter A.4.3.14 for a Step-by-Step guide.
3.3. Complementary Hardware mechanisms
It is important to understand that the first layer of security is the physical security of your industrial controller.
Questions like “Who has physical access to the controller” and “How can I protect the controller from direct
physical access?” should be taken into account. The question about how much physical security you actually
need depends on your situation and environment. You also need to differentiate a typical consumer scenario
(home user) from an industrial environment where hundreds or thousands of employees work day-in and
day-out, often in shift-work. Securing physical access in such a scenario can be a time-consuming task and
you need to consider all aspects of your environment to cover all physical security threats.
3.3.1. Locked cabinets
A locked cabinet should be the default way to place an industrial controller. Depending on your environment,
this cabinet should be perhaps equipped with additional features like for example climate control, anti-theft
alarm, etc. To ensure that only a minimum of people may access the cabinet, an advanced access control
system should be used in accordance with the locking mechanism, for example smartcard or fingerprint
readers. This also ensures that employees leaving the company can be restricted from accessing the
cabinet in a timely manner.
3.3.2. Video surveillance
Video surveillance is often used in environments where employees are organized by shift-work or where the
field of work is decentralized and covers a large area. As video cameras can be a good and necessary step
to acquire more information about an occurred security issue, they do not actively prevent a security issue
and therefore should always be used together with other mechanisms, for example a locked cabinet.
IPC Security 19