Cyber security

The oil and gas industry is working to build resilience, as the increasingly-targeted sector becomes more mature in its response to cyber threats.

Once the Cyber Resilience Act is in place, manufacturers of hardware and software will have to implement cybersecurity measures across the entire lifecycle of the product, from the design and development, to after the product is placed on the market.

While at SPE Offshore Europe last month in Aberdeen, Scotland, World Oil had a chance to visit with two of DNV’s section heads handling various aspects of the digital side of upstream oil and gas. What follows are some highlights of that visit and specific projects that DNV is undertaking.

Together, DNV and Nixu will safeguard demanding IT and industrial control system environments and build business resilience in energy and other sectors. A combined team of more than 500 cyber security experts will provide a market-leading portfolio of consulting and managed services to manage cyber risks.

A majority (59%) of the 600 energy professionals surveyed by DNV say their organization is investing more in cybersecurity in 2023 compared with last year, acknowledging that cyber-attacks on the industry are a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’.

The CYBER MANAGED Prepared notation provides a road map to build cyber-managed vessels. Concretely, with the BV Cyber Managed Prepared Notation system, it means that Express 101 will be ready to receive the CYBER MANAGED notation to protect its on-board computers against unauthorized access, misuse, modification, destruction or improper disclosure of the information generated.

It has become apparent that securing the industry against cyber criminality is a priority, to mitigate the existential threat to business functionality. There are a multitude of actions that operators can take to achieve battle-readiness in this era of unprecedented instability.

DNV outlines how energy companies must address the increasingly common, complex and creative cyber threats facing their organizations.

The white paper provides accessible advice for overcoming hurdles in designing, building and operating OT security programs. These recommendations include setting goals and responsibilities to determine vulnerabilities, selecting countermeasures and governance systems, implementing controls, and embedding assurance schemes.

Offshore U.S. oil and natural gas installations are “at significant risk” of cyber-attack, according to a federal watchdog that warned of a potential disaster on par with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout.

The majority of companies across the U.S. oil and gas industry are at risk of a successful cyber breach according to BreachBits, a cyber risk rating and monitoring company that evaluates and tests organizations from a hacker’s perspective.

Modern offshore operations are highly complex, generating tens of thousands of data points and transmitting them to onshore control centers across multiple types of networks. Offshore facilities also include technologies from many suppliers that interface with the main process control system, each with their own cybersecurity profile. Mature, proven control systems are often selected but require interfaces to new technologies. In this heterogeneous environment that combines old and new, understanding what's on the network can be a significant challenge. Similarly, tracking and managing patches, obsolescence, antivirus, and hardening profiles multiplies in complexity. Many IT offerings do not contemplate these environments so the industry is turning to customized OT cybersecurity products. Register for this free webinar and you will learn - Why cybersecurity is a critical consideration when implementing a de-manning strategy What are the current technologies that are being used in offshore digitalization and threat profiles How to reduce cybersecurity risk for offshore operations

This webinar will provide practical insights and timely intelligence to share how improving cyber security in your oil and gas operations can help provide better and more valuable business outcomes. Attendees will hear about real life cyber security incidents and the steps organizations took to improve the situation. Join speaker Tiffany Hockensmith to gain a better understanding of: • How to protect critical infrastructure • The approach needed to improve cyber resilience • How to ensure an effective incident response plan • How defense mechanisms should be allocated to technology, processes and staff

Wärtsilä has been awarded Lloyd’s Register system-level cyber certification for its network architecture relating to Wärtsilä’s integrated main and auxiliary machinery.

Darktrace, the leader in Enterprise and Industrial Immune System technology, and Siemens, a global engineering and technology leader, have today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership to bring cutting-edge cyber defense for operational technology (OT) to electric utilities and the oil and gas industry.

Deloitte has announced plans to expand its cyber risk platform for end-to-end industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technologies (OT) security with next generation technology enabled by Dragos, a cybersecurity company focusing on securing ICS and OT networks.

ABS, a provider of classification and technical services to the marine and offshore industries, has issued its first notation for the ABS Guide for Cybersecurity Implementation for the Marine and Offshore Industries.