Cassidian CyberSecurity awarded consultancy contract by major oil and gas company in Middle East

The contract consists of establishing governance of the company's IT security of Industrial Control Systems (ICS), also called SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition).

The objective is to define the accountability of SCADA security within the company and the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders, mainly from IT and Automation departments. The consultancy also includes an audit of the architecture and interfaces.

Guy Meguer, General Manager of Cassidian CyberSecurity in the Middle East, said: "Energy utilities are under enormous threats from cyber attacks, and this may particularly affect the oil and gas industry. This is why Cassidian CyberSecurity has developped a specific integrated offer, capable of defending and monitoring Industrial Control Systems used in the oil and gas industries. The best defence for any Industrial Control System is to design an overall security architecture that provides defence in depth across the different components."

Cassidian had conducted extensive research into the challenges of securing industrial control systems against attacks and compromise that would target critical energy plants, water and electricity distribution, or similar vital assets. The challenge is to identify an approach that enables necessary defences without creating additional risks for the architecture and operating procedures. Therefore, Cassidian CyberSecurity has developed a complete approach which provides a whole-life solution and integrates the best solutions into a single package.