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compared with 2013, organizations reporting ? nancial hits of $20 million or more increased 92%,

Out of sight,

Eyebrow Production and ? nancial losses caused by security breaches jumped 34%. Losses are not Out of mind exclusively mon- etary. Respondents

A recent study found that an astonish- also expressed Peter Beales discusses the ing 90% of UK production companies concern about dangers of neglecting lack secure systems to protect all of their theft of intellectual software integrity process control software. Yet, Britain property, damage to is hardly an anomaly; this neglect is company reputation worldwide. and declining share

Software is fundamental to produc- hat constitutes an “asset” value. These con- control systems. While external in? ltra- tion processes, product quality and in the oil and gas industry? cerns demonstrate the imperative need

W tion from hackers or malware is undoubt- safety. To minimize the effects of process The obvious spring to mind: for stricter control over access to critical edly a problem, insiders who have access system failure, operators must protect the vessels, pipelines, and generators, for systems.

example. Few of us, however, would integrity of their process control system to process control software perpetrate

Disaster recovery immediately think of invisible assets, like software. This necessity is manifested in nearly half of security incidents. Granted, some of these breaches are innocent four key areas: security, disaster recovery, the software code, ? les and data stored Every operator understands the immense and accidental, but in too many cases change management and compliance. in tiny silicon chips. Yet, without that cost associated with unplanned shut- employees, subcontractors or third par- information, the entire industry could downs. Few, however,

Security ties deliberately in? ltrate systems to steal collapse. stop to think about how data or sabotage a system. Cyber threats are constantly in the news, The need to protect physical assets is important software is to the

The Global State of Information yet oil and gas operators have been slow clear. However, with electronic informa- running of a system. When

Security Survey 2014 revealed that, to recognize the risks to their process tion, it’s usually out of sight, out of mind. something goes wrong with process control software, costly delays are often pro- longed because of the com- pany’s reliance on ineffec-

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February 2015 | OE oedigital.com 54

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