One button security lockdown of a process control network

A method for securely communicating process control data via a process control network (150) comprising discovering a network device (146) that is communicatively connected to the process control network, the network device including one or more of a network interface card, a network switch, a router, a firewall, a controller, and a workstation; freezing an address table (214) of the network device by transferring one or more authorized physical addresses that each correspond to a valid node of the process control network from a dynamic address table of the network device to a static address table of the network device, wherein authorized physical addresses at the static address table do not age; suspending one or more bridging functions of the network device, wherein the bridging functions include learning, aging, or forwarding; processing a frame (175) received at the network device if the frame includes an authorized physical address (182) that corresponds to an address of the static address table; and dropping the received frame if the frame includes an unauthorized physical address.