Just before the COVID pandemic arrived, at the AHR Expo 2020 in Orlando, Cimetrics launched a Consensus Building initiative to define the requirements for making BACnet more secure. This initiative included participation from all of the leading BACnet vendors in the industry.

Through the pandemic, the group met via Zoom twice weekly to gather requirements, use cases, and recommendations to the industry on how to significantly improve the cybersecurity of BACnet, building on the BACnet/SC addendum that was released in 2019.

Now after two and half years of work, the work product of the group is starting to see the light of day.

The core objective of the initiative was to define an open framework to secure BACnet systems in the following manner:

• Build on the success of BACnet as the global communication and data standard for building automation systems.

• Adopt the most up-to-date IT technologies and best practices in the cybersecurity space.

• Create an interoperable management paradigm to securely manage the network and cybersecurity attributes of the whole system.

• Provide a standardized methodology to integrate the managed BACnet system with tools and processes used by IT and CISO organizations.

• Ensure that the resulting systems be able to be installed, configured, and managed by the existing and anticipated skillset of BAS engineers.

The work product from this initiative was initially made available to those who contributed, and the group is also in the process of publishing the work openly so that the broadest array of vendors and industry players would be able to provide interoperable and secure products and services.

As the convener of this initiative, Cimetrics is happy to be publishing much of this work as the group engages with ASHRAE and BACnet International for the broad distribution and adoption of this framework. The first two papers published are:

• The Secured by Cimetrics Primer, providing an overview of the framework.

• Click here to download.

• The SbC Local Network/Security Manager (SbC Appliance).

• Click here to download.

These documents are only the starting point of published material in support of this initiative. Look out for additional papers, webinars, and announcements over the coming months from Cimetrics, BACnet International, and ASHRAE.