Yikes! Are plant control and power assets safe from cyber-attacks?

There are several online monitoring techniques at facilities for critical equipment and asset management. In a world where automated control and power systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, Oil and Gas producers find themselves in the difficult position of trying to secure all of their mission critical assets. Although control and power device manufacturers have improved the security capability of their products, many production facilities have control and power assets that are several generations old. Most Oil and Gas Producers are currently, or have already formulated, migration plans to transition to the newer more capable devices. There is a catch. The greatest impediment which arises within the transition to more secure technologies is the lack of comprehensive or accurate installed control asset data. This paper will discuss several systems that have been used for a non-intrusive, scalable and widely applicable control and power asset information management solutions and how they support ISA 99, NIST 800-82 and IEC-62443. The facilities can be shown to provide continuous dynamic asset data and have also been provided for system health and condition monitoring of controls systems.