Free IEC 62443 Training: OT Security Courses That Cost Nothing

Free IEC 62443 training does exist. CISA, the US cybersecurity agency, runs no-cost industrial control system (ICS) security courses online. ISA's Global Cybersecurity Alliance gives away a Quick Start Guide to the series. ISA lets you take the first module of each self-paced certificate course free. And EDWartens has four free OT security courses that teach ISA/IEC 62443 from the ground up. What is not free is ISA's own certificate, and the standards documents themselves.

Checked 5 October 2026 against the CISA and ISA pages listed below.

Search for this phrase and most results are paid certificate courses and discount codes. This page sorts out what is genuinely free, what the paid route adds, and how to learn the parts that matter in about six weeks.

What is IEC 62443?

ISA/IEC 62443 is a series of international standards for the security of industrial automation and control systems (IACS). ISA's committee develops it and the IEC publishes it internationally. The ISA overview lists the main parts, including:

It addresses four groups: asset owners, product suppliers, system integrators and service providers. For a controls engineer, 3-2 and 3-3 are the heart of it.

Is there free IEC 62443 training? The options compared

CISA's free ICS courses

CISA's ICS Virtual Learning Portal offers 13 no-cost online courses, including 100W, Operational Security for Control Systems (about an hour), and the 210W series on ICS components, threats, vulnerabilities and defence in depth (about 1.5 hours each). CISA's ICS training page adds scheduled online courses (ICS 300, 310 and 401) and in-person courses at Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls (ICS 301 and 311). All of it is free, but CISA says registration needs a corporate, government, military or education email address.

CISA's courses teach ICS security well. They are not organised around IEC 62443, so pair them with a source that is.

ISA's free material

The ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance publishes a free Quick Start Guide: An Overview of the ISA/IEC 62443 Standards, downloaded after filling in a short form. ISA also lets you take the first module of the self-paced format of each certificate course free, which is a fair way to judge whether the paid course is for you.

EDWartens' free OT security courses

Four free courses, each with practice tasks and an assessment:

1. [ICS Security Foundations](/free/ics-security-foundations) (beginner, 10 modules). What a DCS, PLC, SCADA, building system and safety system each do, the Purdue model, why OT is not IT, defence in depth, and all seven 62443 foundational requirements one at a time. No software needed.
2. [OT and ICS Cybersecurity with ISA/IEC 62443](/free/ot-ics-cybersecurity-iec-62443) (intermediate, 16 modules, about forty hours of video). Zones and conduits, security levels, risk assessment, asset inventory, vulnerability management, incident response, governance and practice tests for the ISA exams. Lessons by creators including Mike Holcomb, credited on the course page.
3. [Cybersecurity for PLC Programmers](/free/cybersecurity-for-plc-programmers). Hands-on hardening in TIA Portal (trial) with PLCSIM, and Rockwell source protection and CIP Security, plus the Top 20 Secure PLC Coding Practices.
4. [OT Security Assessment](/free/ot-security-assessment). Assessing a running plant safely: rules of engagement, passive capture in Wireshark, careful Modbus enumeration and a report ordered by consequence. All the tools are free downloads.

All four are in the OT security courses. The only paid item is an optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, from US$2.99, checkable at edwartens.com/verification. It is not an ISA certificate, not a vendor certification and not accredited. Our post on what "free" really costs on each platform explains how this compares with others.

What does ISA's paid certificate add?

The ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Certificate Program has four certificates. The Fundamentals Specialist comes from course IC32 (two days in a classroom or virtual classroom, eight weeks instructor-guided online, or self-paced), and the registration includes the exam. Risk Assessment Specialist (IC33), Design Specialist (IC34) and Maintenance Specialist (IC37) each require the Fundamentals certificate first. Anyone who earns all four is recognised as an ISA/IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Expert. ISA publishes the price of each course offering on its site, and some employers have discount schemes with ISA.

What you pay for is an independent exam with a recognised name. If a job advert asks for ISA/IEC 62443 certification, free courses do not replace it. If you are learning the subject or deciding whether OT security suits you, start free. Our post on whether free PLC certificates are worth it makes the same argument for PLC training.

Free or paid: which do you need?

• You are a controls engineer who wants to design safer systems. Free training is enough to start. Learn zones, conduits and the foundational requirements, then apply them on your next project.
• An advert or a customer asks for ISA/IEC 62443 certification. Use the free courses to prepare, then take ISA's IC32 exam route. Our 62443 course includes practice tests.
• You are moving from IT security into OT. Start with ICS Security Foundations to learn the plant side, then CISA's courses and the 62443 course.
• You build products for the EU market. Learn parts 4-1 and 4-2, and read up on the Cyber Resilience Act as well.

Common mistakes when learning IEC 62443

1. Starting with the documents. The standards are long and dense. Learn the concepts first, then read the parts you need.
2. Treating it as an IT standard. Availability and safety come first on a plant; a security fix that stops production is not a fix.
3. Skipping the asset inventory. You cannot draw zones around equipment you have not listed.
4. Aiming every zone at SL 4. Security levels are set by risk; over-specifying wastes money that a real risk elsewhere needed.

The core ideas, in brief

Zones and conduits (part 3-2). Group assets with the same security needs into zones, such as a safety system zone, a control zone and a supervisory zone, and treat every communication path between them as a conduit that must be controlled. A worked example: a packaging line's PLCs and HMIs form one zone; the SCADA servers another; the only conduit between them passes through a firewall that allows the SCADA server to read the PLCs and nothing else.

Security levels (part 3-3). Each zone gets a target security level. SL 1 protects against casual or accidental misuse; SL 2 against deliberate attack with simple means and few resources; SL 3 against sophisticated attack with moderate resources and IACS-specific skills; SL 4 against sophisticated attack with extensive resources.

Seven foundational requirements. Every system requirement in 3-3 sits under one of seven headings:

Why it matters now

On 7 April 2026, CISA and partner agencies published advisory AA26-097A on Iranian-affiliated actors changing logic on internet-exposed Rockwell CompactLogix and Micro850 PLCs. An update on 22 July 2026 added Schneider Modicon M340 and Siemens S7-1200. The mitigations read like a 62443 checklist: remove PLCs from the internet, restrict conduits with firewall rules, use multi-factor authentication for external access, set the run-mode switch, keep offline backups. In Europe, the Cyber Resilience Act adds security duties for product makers; see our post on CRA reporting obligations.

A free six-week route

At four to six hours a week: take ICS Security Foundations in weeks 1 and 2, alongside CISA's 210W courses if you can register. Work through the zones, conduits, risk and security level modules of the 62443 course in weeks 3 and 4, with ISAGCA's Quick Start Guide open beside you. In week 5, harden a PLC you can program using Cybersecurity for PLC Programmers. In week 6, write a one-page assessment plan for an imaginary line using the OT Security Assessment course. For the wider background, read our OT cybersecurity explainer. For why this matters now, read about the Iran-linked PLC attacks of 2026, and for a role that applies the standard daily, how to become a SCADA engineer.

If you take an optional EDWartens certificate, anyone can check it by code; our guide on how to verify a training certificate explains what an employer sees.

Take the free course

Cybersecurity · Intermediate · Free

OT and ICS Cybersecurity with ISA/IEC 62443

Cybersecurity · Beginner · Free

ICS Security Foundations: Control Systems, Defence in Depth and the 62443 Requirements

Cybersecurity · Intermediate · Free

Cybersecurity for PLC Programmers: Hardening Siemens and Rockwell Controllers

Cybersecurity · Intermediate · Free

OT Security Assessment: Testing a Plant Without Stopping It