Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition

The National Security Agency is spearheading a team of intelligence agencies and information technology vendors in an effort toward broader use of secure multilevel workstations based on High Assurance Platform (HAP) standards and specifications.

NSA expects this year to approve outside use of HAP systems, which foreshadows the technology’s adoption by federal agencies that handle unclassified data in addition to private companies and eventually individuals, specialists in the field say.

NSA and its vendors expect to complete the technical and legal reviews that constitute the certification and accreditation (C&A) required before HAP systems can be cleared for use in the secret-and-below intelligence (SABI) world. Early HAP systems have been used in the top-secret-and-above intelligence arena for many months.

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The C&A milestone will clear the first HAP release, HAP r1, for use by the SABI community.

The release builds on earlier technology work but doesn’t include some of its most eagerly awaited features, said Ed Hammersla, chief operating officer at Trusted Computer Solutions.

“HAP r4 will include the cornerstones of the HAP technology,” he said. “That is due in 2012.”

Hammersla said the virtual computing features in HAP can strengthen security and provide electricity savings for agencies and companies.

“For example, companies that operate electricity grids and pipelines have become concerned that their general business-side computers, such as the mainframes used for accounting, could provide pathways for insiders to drill through to the supervisory control and administration (SCADA) systems that regulate their networks,” Hammersla said.

SCADA system vulnerabilities have attracted widespread scrutiny as a weakness that terrorists could exploit to devastating effect.

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GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms reached an agreement with Catapult Software Limited to globally resell their iPower product as a standard Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX option.

iPower delivers a unique value proposition for Electrical Transmission and Distribution SCADA applications. It combines the strength of Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX, with additional functionality including built-in object security, enhanced graphic capability, standard operator interfaces, alarm and event reporting and standard drag and drop electrical utility objects. The iPower option reduces customer development and maintenance costs while delivering an easier to use solution.

The Proficy iPower option will be available as a standard part to all GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms customers. iPower is currently successfully used in installations worldwide. About Catapult Software Established in 1991, Catapult Software Limited is a privately owned company supplying proven, reliable SCADA and process control systems worldwide. Electric power, oil & gas, water/waste water utilities and industrials have all built successful operations around Catapult Software’s SCADA and automation capabilities.

“Using the combination of a standard off-the-shelf HMI package in combination with Catapult’s iPower allows utility operations to implement a true SCADA solution at lower cost point than the traditional SCADA suppliers,” said Marcel van Helten, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platform’s Global Industry Director for Infrastructure. “It clearly delivers better scalability and integration with additional functions.”

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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c88688) has announced the addition of “Automation and Control Solutions in the European Pharmaceutical Market” to their offering.

The 21 CFR Part 11 regulation stipulated by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) was introduced in 1997. Implemented across Europe through the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), this regulation requires pharmaceutical companies to increase transparency in their production processes through audit trails and access control functions. By accepting electronic records and electronic signatures as equivalent to paper-based records and handwritten signatures, the FDA paved the way for significant changes in the way that the pharmaceutical industry maintained its records and allowed the industry to leverage technology to keep pace with the fast growth of the industry. “Compliance to various regulations such as 21 CFR part 11 and Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) put forth by the FDA remains a major factor propelling growth in the automation and control solutions market,” comments the analyst of this research. “At the same time, operational efficiency, in terms of bringing down production costs, reducing time to market and increasing flexibility in production, is also a strategic reason for pharmaceutical companies to invest in automation solutions.”

The Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative arose from a need felt by the pharmaceutical industry to lower production costs due to pricing pressures. Traditionally, a production process was followed, wherein the quality of the manufactured drug was checked at the end of the process. However, with the PAT initiative, pharmaceutical companies have been able to ensure the quality of their drugs during the production process itself, supporting reduced time to market, reduced costs and improved quality of products. These two factors are driving growth in the automation and control solutions market due to the scope they present for the use of automation systems such as electronic batch recording systems, analytical equipment as well as solutions for improving visibility through the production process.

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Alarm management can simply be defined as “efficient handling of alarms.” However, this statement has a different meaning to different people. For a process operator, alarm management means “seeing alarms only relevant to him at any given time.” For a control engineer, it means “speed at which alarms are generated, notified, distributed and stored.” And for a plant manager, it could mean “effective notification and distribution of alarms in addition to efficient alarm history retrieval.”

To understand alarm management, we need to understand the “life cycle” of an alarm. The “life cycle” of an alarm is divided into the following stages:

Alarm generation
Alarm notification and distribution
Alarm acknowledgement
Alarm escalation and re-alarming
Alarm storage
Alarm changes
Alarm history retrieval and reporting.
Each of these stages caters to distinct alarm behaviors and can be managed in a variety of ways.

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Innominate Security Technologies AG has joined the Industrial Defender Enabled Partner Program. The program enables technology providers focused on the real-time process control/SCADA market to collaborate on expanding their technology offerings and providing end customers with comprehensive integrated Defense in Depth cyber security solutions.

Innominate Security Technologies AG provides Industrial Ethernet Security and Secure Remote Maintenance solutions for manufacturing and process automation industries. Innominate also offers SCADA security solutions in the industrial security market segment with a focus on the manufacturing and process automation sectors. With the mGuard product line, which supports hardware firewall, VPN and virus protection, Innominate offers an easy way to integrate protection for networked industrial systems, as well as solutions for the secure remote maintenance of industrial machinery and equipment.

“By joining Industrial Defender’s Enabled Partner Program we make it easier for our customers to utilize mGuard technology within a comprehensive Industrial Defender network security system. Customers requiring state-of-the-art security technology in combination with industry-specific expertise and experience in designing, deploying and servicing network security solutions will find that with us. We are very excited about the joint prospects of this cooperation,” said Joachim Fietz, CEO, Innominate.

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The Combrio Virtual Service Infrastructure (VSI) product suite has been expanded to address the need for secure and controlled remote access of automation and process-control network environment for enterprises in the automation and process industries.

VSI Automation and Control is a complete remote product services suite that allows monitoring and management of SCADA elements and applications such as PLCs, distributed control systems, and master control units. Its homogeneous platform addresses both internal access controls, along with third-party vendor services into automation network environments.

The suite also gives remotely located support and service personnel the ability to gain secure, controlled and accountable access to SCADA devices located behind the operations network firewalls.

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ICONICS released its 64-bit-based, OPC-integrated, Web-enabled HMI/SCADA suite, GENESIS64.

The GENESIS64 suite includes several modular solutions that simplify connectivity from the plant floor to corporate business systems. Designed from the ground up to take maximum advantage of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, .NET and SharePoint technology, it allows plant operators and IT professionals to integrate real-time manufacturing and business information into a common, Web-enabled visualization dashboard. The GENESIS64 suite is comprised of GraphWorX64, TrendWorX64, AlarmWorX64, EarthWorX and the Workbench Web-based development, deployment and operations products.

The largest cost of any automation project is in engineering the application. For an average project, this can be well over 60% of the total expenditure. Taking advantage of 64-bit computer can greatly reduce this effort, resulting in enormous savings and helping a company’s bottom line.

“GENESIS64 is the first product for manufacturing and automation to take full advantage of the growing popularity of 64-bit computing technology,” said Russ Agrusa, President and CEO of ICONICS. “Coupled with the innovative capabilities found in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the GENESIS64 suite’s next generation features provide customers with a 360-degree view of their entire organization.”

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“I will tell (you) how to break into a nuclear reactor,” Ira Winkler, president of security firm ISAG said as he launched into his presentation on “How to Take Down the Power Grid” at RSA 2008 on Tuesday night.

“Frankly, it’s really easy to break into the power grid,” he said. “It happens all the time.”

First, you set up a Web server that downloads spyware onto the computers that visit.

Second, you send an e-mail to people who work inside a power station that entices them to click on a hyperlink to the Web server with the spyware. Warning them that their human resources benefits are going to be cut and sending them to a Web site with “hr.com” in the domain would work, according to Winkler, who said he has done this several times in company-approved penetration tests.

Third, you wait as the recipients–and everyone else they forwarded the e-mail to–visit the server and get infected.

“Then we had full system control,” he said. “Once the malware was downloaded onto their systems…we could see the screens and manipulate the cursors.”

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ComBrio, Inc., providers of Remote Product Services (RPS) software for mission critical remote datacenter management, today announced the expansion of its Virtual Service Infrastructure (VSI) product suite to address the needs of enterprises in the automation and process industries for secure and controlled remote access of their automation and process-control network environment.

VSI Automation and Control is the first complete RPS suite that provides plant managers and automation engineers a cost efficient and secure solution for remote monitoring and management of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) elements and applications such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Master Control Units (MCO). It is the only purposely built RPS solution that addresses the end-to-end needs of plant managers by providing them with a homogeneous platform to address both internal access controls, along with third party vendor services into automation network environments.

Through the use of VSI Automation and Control, manufacturing, production, power and fabrication organizations can increase availability and productivity of their process-oriented and discrete control systems. The VSI solution allows remotely located support and service personnel with the ability to gain secure, controlled and accountable access to SCADA devices located behind the operations network firewalls.

According to Dave Boulos, VP of product Management, ComBrio, “There have been many advances in embedded management of today’s automation/process control equipment. This coupled with the adoption of Industrial Ethernet as the standard for SCADA inter-device and inter-vendor communications, has opened up the opportunity for plant managers to improve productivity and increase uptime by leveraging a centrally located or distributed resource pool to monitor and service plant network segments remotely. However, manual process and the complexity of managing remote connectivity have impacted the adoption of IP-based remote automation network management, VSI Automation and Control solves this problem.”

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SIXNET announces BlueTree 6000 series rugged cellular data modems targeting the Telemetry, SCADA, Business Continuity and Mobile Data markets. Each modem has application specific functionality enabling SIXNET customers the most appropriate cellular modem for their specific application requirements.

The 6000 series modems will support both CDMA EVDO and GSM HSPA protocols, and standard features include rugged metal casing, Class 1 Division 2 certification, AC adapter options, USB, Serial and Ethernet Ports, multiple mounting options including DIN Rail, built-in routing functionality and IP Pass-Thru. The 6000 series of modems include the following:

BT-6600 Modem for business continuity, landline backup network connectivity, landline replacement, real - time video monitoring, and remote / temporary offices.

BT-6601 Modem for telemetry / SCADA applications including solutions for the oil / gas, electric utilities, and waste / water management industries. The BT-6601 offers high speed internet connectivity over the EVDO Rev. A cellular network to M2M applications for real-time remote access, monitoring and control of remote devices. By combining standard device interfaces with BlueTree’s powerful internet connection management, the BT-6601 adds “intelligence” to any machine-to-machine solution, thus providing reliable communication to business assets

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