Control-system risk · Critical infrastructure
20+ years
tracking automation incidents
World's largest
record of ICS automation incidents
Licensed PE
engineering-led analysis
U.S. Congress
Joe Weiss has testified before Congress
Automation vs. cybersecurity
Cyberattacks are real. They are not the whole control‑system risk picture.
Automation incidents rarely look like incidents: they show up as equipment failures, unexplained downtime, recurring process problems, or root-cause findings that never quite close.
Source: ACS incident research.
Read the full breakdownIdentify the automation incidents your organization may have filed as equipment failures or unexplained downtime.
Put your experience in context using ACS incident knowledge across sectors and geographies.
Receive relevant incident intelligence, notifications, reviews and expert access all year.
The Workshop can stand alone. The Annual Service begins with it, then keeps your organization current all year.
Start here
Find what you’ve been missing.
Lower initial commitment. An on-site, train-the-trainers engagement that helps operations, engineering, safety and security personnel recognize and classify automation incidents in their own experience.
Continue all year · Includes the Workshop
Begin with the Workshop, then continue all year.
The complete recurring service. It begins with the Workshop, then adds annual incident intelligence, sector comparison, notifications, periodic reviews and access to ACS expertise throughout the year.
Identifying Automation Incidents Behind a 3% Productivity Opportunity at a Major Industrial Facility
Every facility is different, and not every site will find the same opportunity.
Managing Partner, Applied Control Solutions
Licensed PE / CISM / CRISC / ISA Fellow / IEEE Sr. Member / Testified before Congress / Process Automation Hall of Fame
Joe Weiss was among the first to show that serious control-system events are routinely filed as equipment failures, so their automation causes are never investigated. Over more than 20 years he built the incident record that documents it, working from the engineering realities of operational technology rather than an IT-security playbook. That perspective is what makes ACS’s authority founder-led, not certification-led.
The ACS Annual Service puts that incident record, and direct access to Joe, to work for your organization.
Author of Protecting Industrial Control Systems from Electronic Threats
An automation incident is a control system failure whose root cause is engineering (sensors, actuators, control logic, calibration, or setpoints), not an attacker on the network. A cyberattack is unauthorized activity through networks, credentials, or malware. Most control system harm comes from the former, and is routinely misread as equipment failure.
Automation incidents rarely look like incidents. They show up as equipment failures, unexplained downtime, recurring process problems, or root-cause findings that never quite close. Operators see that something is wrong but aren't trained to classify it, and security teams know networks, not normal process behavior.
Start with the Incident Identification Workshop if you want a lower-commitment way to test the ACS approach. The same Workshop is the onboarding component of the Annual Service, which then keeps you current all year. If you're not sure, a 20-minute Incident Review will tell you which fits, or whether neither does.
Pricing is based on the size of your organization. Request an Incident Review for a quote. The Annual Service begins with the Incident Identification Workshop, then adds the ACS annual incident report, comparison with your sector and geography, significant-event notifications, periodic reviews, and year-round availability by phone, email, and video.
No. ACS makes your engineering and security teams better at recognizing the automation incidents that network monitoring misses. It complements your cybersecurity program; it doesn't replace it.
Yes. ACS turns what it learns into trusted, non-punitive information sharing that helps the whole sector improve, without exposing the organizations involved.
Tell us what you're seeing. ACS will reply within one business day to set up a short conversation, and help you decide whether the Workshop, the Annual Service, or neither is the right fit.
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