One Button Security Lockdown of a Process Control Network

A method for locking down one or more access point in a process control network comprising:

• identifying a network device of the process control network, the network device including one or more of a valid access point or an invalid access point, wherein the valid access point includes one or more of an active link to a node of the process control network and a wired connection to the process control network;
• and
• disabling any remaining invalid access points of the network device by one or more of:
• freezing a current configuration of the valid access point, and removing an ability of the invalid access point to receive electrical power.

An apparatus for securely communicating process data via a process control network comprising:

• a private management information base including one or more security modules;
• a communication port for communicatively connecting one or more nodes of the process control network;
• and
• a management protocol module;
• wherein the one or more security modules are configured to selectively disable and enable the communication port and the management protocol is configured to one or more of forward, learn, and age a process control network node address from a frame received at the communication port via the process control network, the address corresponding to a process control network node.

A method for securely communicating process control data via a process control network including one or more network devices, the method comprising:

• discovering one or more network devices that are communicatively connected to the process control network, each network device including one or more communication ports;
• disabling one or more unused communication ports;
• communicating one or more frames to other network devices, wherein the communicated frames are received at a communication port that includes a valid link;
• dropping one or more frames that are received at a disabled communication port.