IEC 62443-4-1: Secure Product Development (Supplier SDL)

IEC 62443-4-1 focuses on the processes suppliers use to develop and maintain secure components, including secure design, vulnerability handling, updates, and documentation. For operators, it becomes a procurement and assurance lever.

• Secure Design & Implementation: defined requirements, threat modeling, secure coding, reviews.
• Verification & Validation: security/regression testing, traceability from requirements to tests.
• Vulnerability Management: coordinated disclosure, patch processes, advisories, support plans.
• Configuration Management: controlled builds, signed artifacts, release integrity.
• Security Guidance: deployment hardening, secure defaults, operational constraints.
• Change Control: documented changes, compatibility impact, upgrade/rollback plans.

• Signed/attested identities for components and agents to support provenance and onboarding.
• Immutable release evidence (hashes, signatures, SBOM references) anchored for audit.
• Telemetry hooks to verify security behavior in production (integrity events, policy outcomes).

• Does the supplier follow an IEC 62443-4-1-aligned SDL and publish vulnerability handling practices?
• Are updates signed and can integrity be verified (secure boot, measured boot, signature validation)?
• Is there documentation for secure configuration, hardening, and remote access guidance?
• Can security events be logged and correlated into SOC/OT monitoring?