Page 135: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2015)

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REVIEW

SAFETY AND SECURITY

Securing the offshore target

Peter Welander shows how a solid cyber plan will buttress safety and uptime.

oming soon to a theater near you: Platform of

C

Death: The exciting story of a small group of off- shore oil platform workers, starring Tom Cruise and

Keifer Sutherland, as they struggle for survival while their platform is under attack by cyber terrorists. Cut off from the mainland with all means of escape eliminated, our heroes try to stay one step ahead of unseen criminal hackers trying to set the platform ablaze.

Does that sound like an exciting movie, or a little too close to reality? Offshore platforms, like pipelines, refineries, and onshore drilling sites, provide tempting targets, thanks to the high revenues they produce along with the potential for dramatic fiery disasters. For better or worse, what disasters there have been are attributed to other causes, but the potential for problems caused by cyber threat actors remain. Are offshore platforms any different than similar onshore facilities? Are they subject to a higher level of threats? Are they, or should they be defended differently?

The short answer to those questions is no, to the extent www.oedigital.com 137_OE0515_REVIEW_Safety&Security.indd 137 4/20/15 10:34 PM