Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition

The idea of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (Scada) systems dates back to the 1970s when minicomputer-based telemetry systems were deployed to look after oil pipelines and widely distributed remote assets of water and power industry resources.

The term Scada was first applied in the mid 1990s to a new class of PC-based software systems that had emerged following the introduction of the personal computer in the early 1980s.

Convinced that the PC would replace traditional control equipment such as programmable controllers and multiple loop process controllers, the early enthusiasts pitched their products as combination controller and human-machine interface (HMI) packages. They were largely defeated by a combination of the PC’s shaky, slow performance and the efforts of the traditional control manufacturers, who staunchly defended their markets with improved controllers and fast, inexpensive HMIs.

By the time of the mid 1990s, the climate for industrial PC packages had progressed. Faster Pentium processors combined with the much easier to use Windows operating system made PCs more attractive, and the increased use of Ethernet on the factory floor made connecting to third party equipment less complicated. Even some Windows-based industrial standards, such as OPC (OLE for Process Control) had begun to emerge, which would help bridge the gap between PCs and the control equipment they wanted to supervise.

Source and more info: engineerlive

Version 6.1 is the very latest release of Mitsubishi’s ground breaking SCADA software and LC Automation are pleased to announce that they now have a number of Free Demo/Development CD’s to give away. Mitsubishi MX4 Version 6.1 adds many new features and enhancements to the existing MX4 functionality. Just a few of the many improvements include: * Web Client – run a live MX4 project within your web browser for easy access to current production information from any PC on the LAN.

* True Colour Support – easily create graphically rich display pages, supporting a greater number of colours than the previously available 256-colours.

* Process Analyst – ActiveX control designed to allow operators to view trend data and alarm tag data in a more visual way than in previous versions.

* Enhanced symbol library – Version 6.1 contains hundreds of symbols that are ready to use in your MX4 project graphics pages.

* Automatic Tag validation.

* Display event trends and time – it is now possible to display event trends as periodic data on a trend graph across a time line rather than by event number.

* Time stamped digital and analogue alarms – two new alarm types, time stamped analogue and time stamped digital, have now been added.

Source and more info: manufacturingtalk

Security firms Tenable Network Security and Digital Bond announced on Tuesday that the two companies planned to release a plugin for the Nessus vulnerability scanner to enable the software to audit networks for vulnerable control system devices.

Digital Bond, a security consultancy that focuses on supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and other distributed control system technology, plans to release the initial set of plug-in features on November 1. Tenable, the creator of Nessus, agreed to an exclusive arrangement with Digital Bond to develop the new features.

“Many of the existing Nessus plugins pull security related information about IT devices on the network,” Digital Bond’s CEO Dale Peterson stated on the company’s blog. “The SCADA plugins will do the same for field devices and control system applications. In an assessment you may use this information to identify rogue systems and plan secondary testing.”

Vulnerability researchers have started to focus more on SCADA and other distributed control and monitoring systems, because the devices act as a gateway between the Internet and critical infrastructure systems, such as power networks and manufacturing systems. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has made securing the systems a top priority for government and private industry. As part of the push, Idaho National Laboratory has teamed up with infrastructure providers to offer example contract language intended to require that suppliers make security a priority.

Source and more info: securityfocus

Idaho National Laboratory and the New York State Office of Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure have teamed up with utilities and makers of distributed control system software to offer advice on how to make system security a major part of the critical infrastructure.

Later this week, the group will release the latest draft of a set of guidelines for utilities and manufacturers that offers specific requirements for suppliers of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, SecurityFocus has learned.

The guidelines aim to elevate system security to an explicit part of negotiations between customer and supplier with the goal of making the next generation of critical infrastructure systems more secure than today’s software and hardware.

“We think we can identify the common weaknesses in regards to security and also identify places where the technology’s security can be tightened up,” said Michael Assante, infrastructure protection strategist for Idaho National Laboratory.

Source and more info: theregister

CHS has selected Invensys to implement an InFusion-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for the Front Range Pipeline and the Cenex Pipeline. These pipelines provide transportation of crude oil to the CHS refinery in Laurel, Montana, and transportation of refined products to markets east, including eastern Montana and North Dakota. The new system will integrate existing third-party programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and monitor and control the data from fifteen pumping stations along the two pipelines.

Communications will be via a Wide Area Network (WAN) utilising fibre optic, VSAT, and dial up links with the different pumping stations.

InFusion View will provide the graphical human machine interface (HMI) for operator visualisation in the Main Control Centre located in Laurel, Montana as well as at each of the fifteen pumping stations.

InFusion Access and Historian will collect and monitor real-time pipeline data from a wide range of device types at the fifteen pumping stations and provide an interface to a centralised third-party historian package for long term data storage.

The Invensys Liquid Pipeline SCADA System replaces two existing SCADA systems, including a legacy Invensys system.

Source and more info: processingtalk

The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Energy will offer free classes during Part II of the SCADA Security Summit for control system engineers and IT professionals who need or want a deeper understanding of security in control systems. The courses, both introductory and intermediate, will be held Sept. 28-30 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

There are 40 seats for the full-day, hands-on course and 120 seats for the half-day course; both of are taught by experts at Idaho National Laboratory and said to be fast-paced. The classes are meant not only to facilitate students in understanding how attacks against SCADA systems are launched and why they work, but also to provide mitigation strategies to increase the cyber security posture of one’s control system network.

The introductory course is targeted to system managers and control operators for power and energy generation, transmission and distribution organizations. It will cover, among other topics, common vulnerabilities of control systems, inappropriate use of wireless communication, and lack of detection and logging of intrusion. There will also be a cyber security awareness demonstration video.

The intermediate course is a more technical class and attendees are required to bring a laptop. Information security personnel, SCADA security personnel, network engineers, and SCADA engineers/integrators and developers are recommended to take this more hands-on course. Among the topics planned are general security observations and pitfalls, dissecting SCADA protocols, and common programming pitfalls.

Source and more info: manufacturing