2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

(279b) Securing Automated Control and Safety Systems from Cyberattack

Author

Today's process plants are more reliant on programmable control and safety systems than ever before. While increasing automation and interconnectivity have led to meaningful improvements in efficiency and reliability for operating sites, with the increasing threat of cybersecurity events, the risks of these systems must be analyzed in new ways. In safety risk assessments safeguards such as basic process control system interlocks, alarms, safety instrumented functions, and mechanical PSVs are considered to function independently, but in a cybersecurity incident, multiple of these layers can be compromised in a single attack. Common points of failure such as shared engineering workstations, shared accounts, and bypasses from operator workstations can be exploited to lead to the failure of multiple IPLs. Best practices for securing safety critical systems from cybersecurity attacks and achieving appropriate independence for automated safeguards will be presented along with strategies to incorporate cybersecurity activities into ongoing site practices.