Control System Security Quarterly

Yesterday the folks over at DigitalBond.com announced that they will be producing a quarterly review of control system security issues; named, appropriately enough, Control System Security Quarterly. According to their blog post the new e-report will be a mix of news and analysis, with a clear marking of the difference between fact and analysis. They have posted a nice two-page .PDF file describing the first issue. They intend to include lengthy (3 to 8 pages), in-depth articles as well as shorter (3 to 4 paragraph) articles of interest to the control system security community. The e-report will look at the world-wide control system community. This looks like it will be an impressive offering, but I was kind of surprised at the subscription costs. The flyer says that there will be a per issue price of $3500 and an annual subscription (four issues) cost of $10,000. This will severely limit the spread of the valuable information. I understand that their costs are going to be high. Just keeping an adequately informed staff of writers will be an immense cost. Anyone knowledgeable enough to write detailed informative pieces on the types of topics being addressed by this publication would command an impressive salary at any of the large consulting firms working the area. Even so, I personally believe that their advertised costs are at least an order of magnitude too high. I don’t think that they will be able to sustain their business model. On the other hand, I wish them the best of luck. If we start to see successful paid subscription publications in the process security arena, writers like me may be able to start making a living just writing on these topics.