Process safety is the discipline of preventing fires, explosions, toxic releases, and other hazardous outcomes in industrial operations. It relies on engineered safeguards, operating procedures, maintenance, training, and management of changes to keep dangerous processes within safe limits.
In cyber security, process safety matters because changes to control systems or disruptions to monitoring can affect physical equipment and hazardous processes. For example, an attacker or accidental configuration change could alter control logic or interfere with readings used by operators. Defenses should assess cyber events in their operational context, protect safety functions, and use carefully tested response procedures. Security tools and automated actions must not undermine the safeguards designed to protect people and facilities.