Company Overview
A liquefied natural gas producer, with total annual capacity of over 36 million tons.
Case Summary:
Industry: Natural Gas Production
Challenge: Malware breach destroyed operations data, causing company to disconnect operational and business networks.
Solution: Owl EPDS data diodes deployed along with OPTS PI System historian replication application.
Benefits: Deterministic, one-way data flow of PI System/OT data into HQ enabled increased visibility without increased risk to production facilities. Restored remote alarm monitoring to corporate IT.
Cybersecurity Challenge
A malware breach destroyed data and application servers, severely impacting daily operations. In response, the company disconnected their operational technology (OT) network from their corporate IT network. While disconnecting electronic communications with the plant prevented malware proliferation, it led to loss of business continuity and lack of visibility into plant operations.
Requirements:
- Restore business continuity and operational visibility
- Maintain a “disconnected” or segmented cybersecurity architectur
- Enable OSIsoft PI System historian replication from OT network to corporate IT network
- Allow remote alarm monitoring from corporate network operations center
Use Case | Before
Solution
Owl data diode technology (EPDS) was selected for effective network segmentation, and secure one-way data transfer, including IT syslog flow from plant assets to the corporate HQ. OSIsoft® PI System historian replication (OPTS) was also added to enable transfer of OT data to the HQ.
Use Case | After
Deployment
Solutions:
Enterprise Perimeter Defense Solution (EPDS)
Data diode communication card pair, mounted on independent, send-only and receive-only commercial servers, for network segmentation and deterministic, one-way data transfer.
Interface Module:
Owl PI Transfer Service (OPTS)
Specialized software developed specifically for secure replication and transfer of OSIsoft® PI System historian data across network boundaries.
Results
- Provided network cybersecurity with effective segmentation of the plant OT network, helping to prevent malware breach and proliferation
- Permitted deterministic outbound OT data flows from the plants into the corporate data stores
- Replicated PI System data historians allowing full production data use and visibility from within the HQ
- Restored alarm data flow from plant assets to corporate users