Top 5 TOP Server V6.5 Features to Be Excited About

If you haven't received one of my emails or heard from a colleague about our latest TOP Server release, you may not have heard about the key new features in the TOP Server V6.5 release.

In this post, I'm going to go through the top 5 key features released in V6.5 in more detail and how they benefit you as a TOP Server user.

1. New Security Enhancements

With the security threat landscape for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) continually changing, it's clear that a common practice of "security by obscurity" is no longer sufficient to protect systems where safety and uptime are of the utmost concern.  Take, for instance, the well-known Stuxnet attack - airgapped networks were not enough to foil that threat.

As such, it is becoming more generally accepted (and even recommended by ICS CERT) that system administrators have a strategy for updating ICS components, which includes TOP Server, instead of assuming that isolation, security, and air gaps are enough.

To that end, TOP Server V6.5 offers a number of new security enhancements and resources to help with secure implementation.

• TOP Server Secure Deployment Considerations Guide
  
  We're providing this document as a resource for best practices that existing and new users should consider if your business needs require deploying TOP Server with maximum security. When your needs dictate a maximum security installation, it is recommended that administrators follow this guide as closely as possible when deploying TOP Server in a production environment. It is up to the user, their IT administration, or other responsible parties for your system to decide what parts of the guide to implement for specific use cases.  Click here to get your copy!
  
  

• Current OS and OPC Interface Capabilities and Security
  
  TOP Server V6.5 supports all current Windows desktop and server operating systems at the time of its release.  As recommended in the Secure Deployment Considerations guide that I just mentioned, we always suggest running the most current operating system available whenever possible.
  
  With TOP Server operating system support being regularly updated as new OS versions become available, you're covered.  Full specifications, including OS support, are always available on the TOP Server website here.
  
  In addition to considerations about OS, OPC UA continues to evolve as a standard with security capabilities such as encryption and client user authentication down to the tag level. TOP Server V6.5, as with previous releases in the Version 6.x family of TOP Server, includes significant security features for the OPC UA interface.  Running Version 6.5 insures you have the most up-to-date and secure OPC UA interfaces.
  

• Project File Encryption
  
  Project files in TOP Server regularly contain customer proprietary information on an organization’s network, processes and control devices.  For example, it's common for project files to contain device IP addresses, passwords to access the PLC, process tagnames and related memory addresses.
  
  As such, it's important to protect such information to avoid issues with cybersecurity and client intellectual property concerns.  To address this, TOP Server V6.5 gives you the ability to encrypt and password protect .opf project files (NOTE: .json formatted files are not affected) for security during transfers of the project either to other users or other instances of TOP Server.

  
  
  The encryption mechanism used is such that it wouldn't be practically feasible to attack using brute force methods.

• Administrator Password during Installation
  
  To ensure the secure operation of TOP Server, users really need to consider utilizes a strong administrator password in the built-in User Manager. To help remind users to set a password for the Administrator user, starting with V6.5, you are now encouraged to set an Administrator password during the TOP Server installation process.  This helps to enhance the security of your server even before you begin to configure it.
  
  
  
  When presented with the User Manager Credentials dialog during the installation, you'll want to set a strong administrator password. It is recommended that the password be at least 14 characters in length and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. And you should also avoid well known, easily guessed, or common passwords.
  
  And it is imperative that, if you choose to set a password, that you store the password securely - they are not recoverable and will require re-installing the product if lost.
  
  You'll want to work with your IT department on centralized storage of this information, considering that you might not be working for the company or available when another employee needs this information.
  

• Back-end Security Updates
  
  To continue protecting against constantly evolving encryption-breaking technology, TOP Server V6.5 has updated encryption algorithms throughout the product, and we'll continue to update those algorithms to ensure the on-going security of the application as part of the continuous improvements process you're familiar with.
  
  Additionally, third-party components utilized by TOP Server are upgraded as vendors make them available to utilize the most modern security components and encryption available, further combating cyber threats.

2. MQTT Client Driver Auto Tag Generation (ATG)

You may recall that, in the TOP Server V6.4 release, we added a new driver for MQTT Client connectivity.  MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight message protocol used to connect a wide variety of IoT and industrial automation devices using a publish/subscribe model for communications.