ABB

What is ABB?

ABB is a Swiss-Swedish technology group headquartered in Zurich that supplies electrification products, drive technology, process automation and industrial robots to industry, power supply and infrastructure. The company was formed in 1988 from the merger of Sweden’s ASEA (founded 1883) and Switzerland’s Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC, founded 1891), employs around 110,000 people and has annual revenue of more than 32 billion dollars. In OT, ABB is best known for the System 800xA DCS, the AC500 PLC family, variable frequency drives and robots. That puts ABB at the intersection of industrial automation, energy infrastructure and OT convergence.

🧱 Which divisions make up ABB?

ABB is organised into four business areas. For an OT team it helps to know which division supplies a product, because support, firmware policy and security advisories are handled per division.

The group has been reshaped substantially in recent years:

• Power Grids - the grid business (high voltage, HVDC, substation automation) passed 80.1% to Hitachi in July 2020 and fully in December 2022; it is now called Hitachi Energy
• GE Industrial Solutions - acquired in June 2018, strengthening ABB’s position in electrification
• B&R - Austria’s Bernecker + Rainer was acquired in July 2017 for machine and motion automation
• Turbocharging - spun off in October 2022 as the listed company Accelleron
• Robotics - in October 2025 ABB announced the sale of its robotics division (around 7,000 employees, 2.3 billion dollars revenue in 2024) to SoftBank for about 5.4 billion dollars, with completion scheduled for mid to late 2026, subject to regulatory approval in the EU, the US and China, among others

🕰️ How did ABB end up in process automation?

ASEA and BBC were traditionally strong in electrical engineering, generators and high voltage. The big step into process control came in 1999 with the acquisition of Elsag Bailey Process Automation for 2.1 billion dollars. This brought ABB, among others, Bailey Controls (founded in 1916 and known for power plant control systems) and the instrumentation brand Fischer & Porter.

That explains why ABB still maintains several DCS lines side by side today: each line has its own installed base that lasts for decades. The robotics history goes back a long way too: in 1974 ASEA launched the IRB 6, one of the world’s first all-electric, microprocessor-controlled industrial robots.

🏗️ Which DCS and PLC platforms does ABB supply?

A DCS differs from a standalone PLC in that control, visualisation, alarming and engineering share one system with one database, with redundant controllers and networks for high availability. AC500 controllers are programmed in Automation Builder, which is based on CODESYS and supports the IEC 61131-3 languages. Engineers who already work with other CODESYS environments will therefore recognise the editor straight away.

🌐 Which protocols and integrations does ABB support?

ABB systems speak both classic fieldbuses and modern IT-oriented protocols:

• Field level - classic fieldbuses such as Profibus, HART and Foundation Fieldbus, and over Industrial Ethernet and standard Ethernet protocols including ProfiNET and Modbus TCP
• Energy - IEC 61850 for integration with protection relays and IEDs in substations, and DNP3 for telemetry
• Upward integration - OPC UA towards the historian, MES and ISA-95 layers, complemented by MQTT and REST APIs for cloud applications
• Digital services - under the ABB Ability brand, ABB offers remote monitoring, condition monitoring of motors and drives, predictive maintenance, AI-based optimisation and digital twins, partly via edge gateways and the cloud

This makes ABB an important building block in IIoT architectures, but every upward connection also enlarges the attack surface. For robots and motion control, deterministic communication with low latency remains the priority.

🔐 What about the cybersecurity of ABB systems?

ABB is a CVE Numbering Authority and publishes its own security advisories with CVE numbers. Government CERTs republish them; in July 2024, for example, several advisories appeared for the ASPECT and NEXUS building management products. If you manage ABB equipment, this source belongs in your vulnerability management process.

On the product side, ABB has obtained certifications under IEC 62443:

An ISASecure certificate applies to a specific version and a specific security level. It says nothing about how your own installation is configured. The main risks in practice are ransomware on Windows servers and engineering workstations, unmanaged remote access for vendor maintenance, outdated systems and supply chain risk.

Common measures:

The architecture is usually designed in line with the Zones and Conduits Model, Defense in Depth, Zero Trust principles and NIST SP 800-82, with ISO 27001 on top for the management system.

🛡️ What role does ABB play in functional safety?

ABB supplies safety solutions for both process and machine safety: safety PLCs such as the AC500-S, AC 800M High Integrity as an SIS within 800xA, emergency shutdown systems and drives with integrated safety functions such as Safe Torque Off. These are designed and applied according to:

• IEC 61508 - the basic standard for functional safety
• IEC 61511 - safety instrumented systems in the process industry
• ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 - safety of machinery control systems

In the process industry these systems prevent explosions, overpressure, chemical incidents and environmental damage. An ABB safety system that shares a network with the DCS must therefore also be treated as a separate zone in the cybersecurity analysis.

🏭 How do you approach an ABB installation in practice?

In the Netherlands, ABB systems run in chemicals, drinking water, power plants and shipping, among other sectors. ABB also has a strong presence in EV charging: it acquired the Dutch charging company Epyon in 2011, and in 2013 Fastned chose ABB Terra fast chargers for its network. A DCS often lasts twenty years or more, while the Windows servers underneath fall out of support every few years. A practical approach:

1. Inventory the installed base - which 800xA, Freelance, Symphony or AC500 versions, controllers, firmware and Windows versions are running? Record per product which division (or Hitachi Energy, for older grid automation) provides support.
2. Link it to the lifecycle - record the ABB lifecycle phase (active, classic, limited, obsolete) in your lifecycle management and plan migrations in time.
3. Follow advisories - subscribe to ABB’s cybersecurity notifications and compare them with the CISA list of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities.
4. Test changes - run firmware and software upgrades on a test system or simulator first, with a FAT and SAT and a fallback scenario.
5. Control vendor access - route remote service through a controlled jump host with MFA, logging and time-limited access (remote maintenance).
6. Check against legislation - if your organisation falls under the Dutch Cybersecurity Act (Cyberbeveiligingswet, in force since 15 August 2026), supplier risks and incident reporting are part of your duty of care. The Cyber Resilience Act requires manufacturers such as ABB to report actively exploited vulnerabilities from 11 September 2026 and applies in full from 11 December 2027.

ABB components usually sit on several layers of the Purdue Model:

❓ Frequently asked questions

What does ABB stand for?

ABB stands for Asea Brown Boveri, after the two companies that merged in 1988: Sweden’s ASEA and Switzerland’s Brown, Boveri & Cie. The group is headquartered in Zurich and nowadays uses only the abbreviation ABB as its name.

Is ABB a DCS or a PLC supplier?

ABB supplies both. Its best-known DCS is System 800xA with AC 800M controllers, alongside Freelance and Symphony Plus, while AC500 and B&R cover the PLC and machine automation side.

Is System 800xA certified to IEC 62443?

Yes, System 800xA version 6.1.1.x has held an ISASecure SSA certificate at security level 1 under IEC 62443-3-3 since 2022. ABB also holds an IEC 62443-4-1 certificate for its development process and an IEC 62443-2-4 certificate for the delivery of 800xA systems.

What is the difference between ABB and Hitachi Energy?

Hitachi Energy is ABB’s former Power Grids division, which was sold in full to Hitachi between 2020 and 2022. For high voltage, HVDC and part of the grid automation that once carried the ABB name, Hitachi Energy is now the supplier and the point of contact for support and security advisories.

Is ABB selling its robotics division?

In October 2025 ABB announced the sale of its robotics division to SoftBank for about 5.4 billion dollars, with completion scheduled for mid to late 2026, subject to regulatory approval. B&R’s machine automation business stays with ABB.

How do you stay informed about vulnerabilities in ABB products?

ABB is a CVE Numbering Authority and publishes advisories on its own cybersecurity page, which CISA and other CERTs also republish. Add that source to your vulnerability management process and match every notification against your inventory of ABB components.

📌 In summary

ABB is one of the major suppliers of process automation, drives and electrification, with System 800xA, Freelance, Symphony Plus and AC500 as its core platforms. Acquisitions (Elsag Bailey, B&R, GE Industrial Solutions) and divestments (Hitachi Energy, Accelleron, the robotics division) have changed the portfolio substantially, with direct consequences for support and lifecycle management of your assets. For OT teams the priorities are inventory, controlled vendor access, validated patching and certification to IEC 62443, within the frameworks of cybersecurity, compliance and the Cybersecurity Act.

ABB systems last for decades: if you know your installed base, follow the advisories and control vendor access, you keep an ABB installation secure and supported.