Safety through Security

As industrial operations become more connected, organizations are making significant security investments to help protect their intellectual property, their operations, and their brand. However, the inherent safety implications of security risks are too often overlooked. By integrating safety and security programs and following key steps, manufacturers, and industrial operators can assess, manage, and mitigate the safety implications of security risks in a Connected Enterprise.

Industrial security is top of mind as organizations implement connected, information-enabled architectures to help improve productivity, efficiency, and safety. Whether it's remote access to production machinery, wireless access to pumping stations, or connecting plant-floor equipment to the IT infrastructure, greater connectvitiy can provide significant improvements in productivity and safety. But it also increases risks - not only to intellectual property, profits and mission-critical producion assets, but also to people and the environment.

Safety systems are designed to detect faults, alert operators and automatically intervene. By altering or attacking safety systems, security breaches can force a standard control system to operate beyond its safety parameters, damage equipment and the environment, or even place workers and the general public in unsafe situations