Illustrative: packages on a board with routed traces carrying clocked signals, or a data hall of racks and their status lights
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Technology and Digital Systems · Department of Cyber, Digital and Space Systems
Securing the systems that move valves, breakers and machines
Operational technology and cyber-physical security
When control systems are attacked the consequences are physical: a breaker opens, a pump stops, a process runs out of its safe envelope.
- Courses
- In preparation
- Levels
- In development
- Labs
- In development
- Industrial control systems and SCADA
- The IEC 62443 series
- Safety and security co-engineering
- Attacks with physical consequences
- Network segmentation and the Purdue model
- Vulnerability management in OT
- Industrial internet of things
- Incident response in industrial environments
- Medical device and vehicle cyber security
Build a twin of any place
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow operational technology and cyber-physical security on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.
Technology and Digital SystemsAny placeTwin builder
- Terrain 0 to 245 m
- 4 satellite dishes
- 74 communication masts and towers
- 12 telephone exchanges
- 7 data centres and cable landing stations
- 12 aerodromes
- 1 telecom offices
- Communication line 161 km
- 729 known exploited vulnerabilities since 2023-10-17
- Night-time lights, VIIRS day-night band: read live when the 3D twin opens
Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.
Places4
Layers5
iCredits
- Terrain Surface height in whole metres on a grid of about 240 by 370 metres, read from one overview of the 30 m product at build time; 0 at sea. Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010–2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014–2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved. read 2026-10-17. Estimate: A digital surface model: trees and roofs are in the heights. Relief exaggeration is printed on the stage.
- Ground infrastructure Satellite dishes, communication masts and towers, telephone exchanges, data centres and cable landing stations, telecom offices and aerodromes, each as one point with its tags as mapped. © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. data as of 2026-06-01. Estimate: Points as mapped by contributors: a missing feature means it is not mapped, not that it does not exist; operator and height tags are kept as tagged.
- Communication cables Submarine and terrestrial communication cables mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors inside the box, clipped to it, with their length in kilometres. © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. data as of 2026-07-15. Estimate: OpenStreetMap-mapped cables at the extract date; never a complete or authoritative cable inventory.
- Known exploited vulnerabilities Catalogue entries added in the last three years with six fields: CVE id, vendor or project, product, date added, due date and the known ransomware campaign use flag. Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (CC0 1.0), snapshot 2026-10-17, catalogue version 2026.10.16. read 2026-10-17. Estimate: A dated snapshot, never a live or complete vulnerability feed; vendor and product names are the vendors' own marks shown as data; no CISA logo or DHS seal.
- Night-time lights, VIIRS day-night band Night-time radiance for the date shown, draped on the terrain, as a proxy for where settlements and sites draw power. VIIRS SNPP day-night band at-sensor radiance, NASA, via NASA GIBS, with the product date. Live: this page requests gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov when the layer is opened; the data date is printed with it. We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Estimate: Satellite radiance with moonlight and cloud not corrected in this product; lights are a proxy, never a measurement of electricity supply, access or outages.
Why this place: One box of about 57 by 55 kilometres holds Goonhilly Earth Station (the ground segment of satellite communications since 1962 and a deep-space ground station today), the Porthcurno valley where transatlantic telegraph and later fibre cables came ashore, the Culdrose air station and the telecom masts of a rural peninsula, so the ground segment, cable landings and the resilience of positioning, navigation, timing and communication can be taught in one place. Data quality: OpenStreetMap coverage of the United Kingdom is complete for masts, dishes and named sites, Copernicus DEM GLO-30 covers the terrain in four tiles, and VIIRS night lights show where the digital economy draws power. It connects to the Space systems, space weather and navigation, cybersecurity, Digital public infrastructure and digital identity and Data infrastructure, compute and semiconductors disciplines of the atlas.
Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the mapped ground infrastructure by kind, the mapped cables and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).
Connected activity in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Night-time lights and population density, the footprint of electrified, connected activity, over the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 2
Connected activity
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Connected activity, framed on the United Kingdom and Ireland.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONETSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Optional layers (3 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies
The field and its scope
For control engineers, plant security leads, safety officers and regulators who must protect systems whose failure moves valves, trips breakers, doses patients or steers vehicles.
Quantities and units
Methods and their limits
Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.
What the field debates
Bodies that set practice, and the data they publish
Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.
From a failure rate to a safety integrity level, and the attack the arithmetic cannot see
A safety instrumented function's probability of failure on demand follows from its dangerous failure rate and its proof-test interval, and maps to a safety integrity level; the calculation assumes random, independent faults, so the security level of the zone around the controller is a separate decision that the safety figure never covers.
Sources: Stouffer et al., Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security (NIST SP 800-82 Revision 3) (2023); Kriaa, Pietre-Cambacedes, Bouissou and Halgand, A survey of approaches combining safety and security for industrial control systems (2015); Young and Leveson, An integrated approach to safety and security based on systems theory (2014).
At a glance, hub and courses
Operational technology and cyber-physical security at a glance
risksacademy.comtechnology-digitaldiscipline
- Open, 0
- In preparation, 0
- Subtopics, 9
Research and tools
Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.
The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Operational technology and cyber-physical security, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
Courses in this discipline
Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.
The course catalogue lists every open course of the Academy.
How Operational technology and cyber-physical security is taught, as a process you can run
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Achievements, where this is practised, practised in and across the ecosystem
Achievements in this discipline
Course achievements
One for each course with this as its primary discipline, earned when you pass the course's assessed activities.
An achievement is a record of the learning completed and assessed here. How recognition works.
Where the subject is practised
A field platform page on this subject is in development.
The three Foundry systems where it is practised
Across the ecosystem
Take part in Technology and Digital Systems
Start from who you are.
Core references and where to begin
Start with Stouffer, then Langner, then Humayed.
Questions, answers and key terms
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Where do the data and the places come from?
How do I take part beyond the courses in operational technology and cyber-physical security?
Key terms
Operational technology
Hardware and software that monitor and control physical devices and processes.
SCADA
Supervisory control and data acquisition: systems that monitor and control distributed industrial assets.
Security level
In IEC 62443, a measure of the resistance of a zone or component to attackers of increasing capability.
Zones and conduits
The IEC 62443 approach of grouping assets with common security needs and controlling communication between them.
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Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
Around Operational technology and cyber-physical security
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