SCADA – Security Case Study

The threat of unauthorized personnel, safety concerns for employees, potential damage to equipment, environmental hazards associated with health, waste and contamination and the resulting loss of production have prompted us to develop an engineered approach to Remote Site Security. We have gone beyond the standard security camera and SCADA alert/alarm capabilities and found a way to incorporate behavioral analytic software that can stand alone or integrate with your SCADA system. GlobaLogix is the exclusive provider of this Best Available Video Analytics Technology to the Oil & Gas industry. GlobaLogix has ten years experience serving the engineering needs of the upstream and midstream Oil & Gas industry in Texas. Our security system designs start from an Oil & Gas perspective. We understand how you work and what is needed to meet your security requirements. Wouldn’t you like to know what’s happening at your remote unmanned sites and facilities before you dispatch personnel?

Video Surveillance.

The approach uses field proven software that promotes machine learning. This program is not a rules-based system that requires hundreds of man hours to configure. The end devices (cameras) learn what is normal and sends out alerts when they “see something they haven’t seen before” like people moving just outside your perimeter, climbing fences or hiding under production equipment. This software learns what is considered normal behavior for your field or operation and alerts only when there is an anomaly. The software will send you a 10-second video clip of the anomaly as it is happening in the form of an alarm similar to those you receive through SCADA. This allows you to not only understand the potential threat but to react accordingly in real time. The software integrates with your SCADA system or stand-alone adjunct system. It is fully customizable to your application. In one case, the viewable hours were cut down from 36,000 hours of footage to only 4 hours that were relevant, significantly reducing costly bandwidth.

SCADA.

GlobaLogix can also offer a similar service for your SCADA data. AISight for SCADA helps operators use SCADA data to identify potential alarming conditions as they are developing, rather than after an alarm has been issued. This proactive approach to facilities management helps prevent safety and environmental issues, as well as stop loss situations such as theft or vandalism.

An additional benefit comes from identifying opportunities for increased production. AISight provides insight into how the operation is behaving and points out to the SCADA operators, areas in a vast operation where they should be focusing attention before alarm conditions indicating imminent failure are reached. One current user of this system (an interstate gas pipeline) is quoted as saying; “It’s like having 50 assistants looking at the data and telling me where to direct my attention.”

Finally, AISight for SCADA delivers a “big picture” view across facilities by automatically connecting information from multiple sensors into real-time alerts. For example, equipment failures that rarely happen in isolation can be identified sooner due to unexpected data patterns recognized elsewhere in the system. Operators no longer have to perform this level of correlation manually.