Modern Cybersecurity Requirements in Industry

Today, automated and interconnected operational technology (OT) systems play a crucial role in ensuring electrical safety. Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT concern—it has become an integral part of technical maintenance and the safety of industrial facilities. Standards such as NFPA 70B and NFPA 72 increasingly include cybersecurity as a necessary condition for maintaining data integrity, system reliability, and the security-related infrastructure.

Industrial enterprises must identify digital dependencies, strengthen change management, and implement Secure by Design principles to protect the safety, reliability, and continuous operation of their equipment.

Changing Approaches to Maintenance

The maintenance of industrial assets is becoming ever more dependent on digital systems, such as automatic circuit breakers, motor control centers, relays, control panels, monitoring systems, and signaling interfaces. While the core tasks of personnel protection, equipment maintenance, and recovery remain unchanged, the solutions now rely on digital platforms that may not always be fully transparent or under the direct control of maintenance staff.

In modern facilities, automation and OT systems support every stage of the electrical safety lifecycle, including device configuration, inspection records, alarm histories, condition monitoring trends, remote access, configuration files, and engineering data. The availability, accuracy, and manageability of these systems directly impact the effectiveness and safety of technical maintenance.

The Importance of Digital Data Integrity

Cybersecurity is now an inseparable part of technical maintenance and safety, as trust in systems, data, and access channels determines the quality of decision-making. Undocumented configuration changes, incomplete inspection records, unavailable monitoring data, or uncontrolled remote access to critical systems undermine confidence in maintenance programs.

The electrical safety lifecycle, as proposed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), unites NFPA 70, NFPA 70E, and NFPA 70B standards into a single model that covers safe installation, work practices, and proper equipment maintenance. In today’s environment, every part of this cycle increasingly depends on interconnected automated and OT systems.

The Impact of NFPA 70B and NFPA 72 Standards

NFPA 70B defines the structure of electrical maintenance programs, including equipment inspections, documented procedures, inspection and testing plans, record retention policies, corrective actions, and maintenance-friendly design. All these elements require reliable information and up-to-date data on equipment condition.

The 2026 edition of NFPA 70B directly links these requirements to cybersecurity, including OT-cyber risk assessments for industrial control systems, unless they are limited to a local interface. Additional NFPA materials emphasize that maintaining OT cybersecurity is an essential part of modern electrical, electronic, and communication systems.

NFPA 72 also mandates cybersecurity for fire alarm and notification systems, especially as these systems become integrated into network infrastructures.

Secure by Design Principles and Lifecycle Management

Applying Secure by Design principles allows organizations to address cybersecurity and maintainability requirements early in the design, procurement, and integration of equipment. It is important to define ownership, access control, change approval, configuration backups, update management, and recovery procedures in advance.

A system that is difficult to update, back up, or document, or that lacks a clear owner, increases risks for future operations teams.

Practical Steps for Organizations

Organizations are advised to start by mapping the digital dependencies that support maintenance and safety. For safe installation, this may include drawings, models, studies, configuration files, and documentation. For work practices—labels, procedures, equipment status, access rights, and alarm information. For maintenance—inspection records, device settings, monitoring data, backups, vendor access, and recovery procedures.

Once dependencies are identified, they should be classified by criticality, considering their impact on personnel safety, production, compliance risks, recovery complexity, and the organization’s ability to detect or reverse unauthorized changes.

The next step is to strengthen change control and protect evidence. Relay settings, controller logic, interfaces, network rules, firmware versions, user accounts, remote access rights, and life-safety system interfaces must all be clearly managed, backed up, and have recovery procedures in place.

Team Collaboration and Risk Management

Electrical maintenance, automation, OT cybersecurity, EHS, and operations teams should regularly review a unified risk profile, discussing which interconnected systems support maintenance and safety, what information they rely on, where cyber issues could impact safety, reliability, uptime, or emergency response, and which gaps pose the greatest risk.

Conclusion

Electrical safety depends on proper maintenance, and maintenance relies on trustworthy systems and data. In modern industrial facilities, automated and OT systems support every stage of the safety lifecycle. If these systems are unavailable, inaccurate, or subject to unauthorized changes, cybersecurity becomes a core part of maintaining the integrity of the electrical safety cycle—not just a separate technical task.