Companies collaborate to provide cyber security solutions for oil plants

Yokogawa and Cisco are collaborating to deliver Shell's SecurePlant initiative, which SecurePlant is a security management solution for plant control systems. This is scheduled to be implemented over the next three years at around 50 Shell plants globally.

By Yokogawa February 9, 2015

Takashi Nishijima, president and ceo, Yokogawa Electric Corp., explained how the company creates value for customers. Courtesy: CFE Media, Mark T. Hoske, Control EngineeringYokogawa Electric Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc. are collaborating to deliver Shell’s SecurePlant initiative. SecurePlant is a comprehensive security management solution for plant control systems that was jointly developed as an initiative between Cisco, Yokogawa, and Shell. The three companies have agreed to proceed over the next three years with the implementation of SecurePlant at approximately 50 Shell plants globally.

Industrial producers around the world face a wide range of operational challenges in areas such as cybersecurity that pose a pervasive threat to safety and availability. Most companies with global operations, however, still take a relatively simplistic plant-by-plant approach, such as implementing operating system security patches and anti-virus pattern file updates. As a result, security levels tend to vary at each plant and there is a lack of  standardization.

Yokogawa and Cisco collaborated on the design of the SecurePlant service with the aim of standardizing security practices at Shell plants. They will also jointly provide deployment and operational services. The SecurePlant solution consists of OS patches and anti-virus pattern files for control systems and the provision of real-time and proactive monitoring of solution delivery as well as a help desk operation to manage this solution.

Supplier-certified Windows security patches and virus signature files are distributed from a SecureCenter to the SecureSite at each plant via Shell’s existing global network. The real-time and proactive monitoring capabilities enable the centralized management of plant security. A customer help desk operated jointly by Yokogawa and Cisco is available 24/7/365 to manage solution-related incidents. 

Yokogawa

www.yokogawa.com 

Cisco Systems, Inc.

www.cisco.com 

– Edited by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering networking products.