As U.S. oil and gas operations and electric power systems increasingly shift to digital, cloud-based solutions to help operate their oil fields and generation centers, operators are increasingly concerned about the need for cybersecurity to protect their defenses against hackers and evil actors who try to harm. or even shut down those systems.
The recent outbreak of cyber security breaches highlights the vulnerability of even the most critical systems in the country to cyber abuse. In a SolarWinds scandal discovered last year, officials found cyberattacks that took place against several U.S. government agencies and thousands of public and private organizations around the world.
Recently, in February an operator of a water treatment plant in central western Florida discovered a potentially dangerous break-in that occurred on the plant’s computer system. The hacker or hackers set levels of sodium hydroxide, a potentially dangerous chemical, to increase normal levels more than 100 times. The operator returned the chemical levels to their proper proportions and avoided a health disaster.
A recent report by the MIT Technology Review, prepared in partnership with Siemens Energy, finds that the digital transformation of the oil and gas industry is progressing. has currently introduced operational benefits as well as cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Oil and gas companies “collect and analyze data, connect equipment to the Internet of Things and tap into advanced technologies to improve design and increase profits, as well as detect and mitigate threats, ”The report states. “At the same time, the digital transformation of the industry is expanding the surface to attack cybercriminals.”
Federal officials are also beginning to recognize the need to support critical infrastructure cyber security protections. In the House’s new $ 312 billion infrastructure bill, backed by President Biden, approximately $ 3.5 billion has been earmarked for improving the cybersecurity of the electric grid.
Such protection of the grid against cyber-harassment is desperately needed, according to Tom Siebel, founder, chairman and CEO of C3.ai, an enterprise software company that specializes in providing artificial intelligence (AI) applications. ) for business customers. The grid is currently vulnerable to attacks from malicious actors working out of other countries, many with the support of the governments of those countries, he said.
“They could turn off the power grid from a cell phone in Kiev. We are completely open, ”he said.
Moving up the defense
Other industry experts agree that energy companies need to advance their cyber-security protection as they begin to rely more on digital technologies such as AI and cloud computing in their work.
“Business cyber has become a new risk frontier and in particular, vertical energy is the most undermined infrastructure,” said Leo Simonovich, global head of Cybers Business and Digital Security at Siemens. “The number of attacks is growing and the luxury is growing. ”
He said an attack on a piece of emergency infrastructure such as a power station could lead to a temporary power outage, complete closure of works or worse, a public safety incident. Siemens, he said, will work with its customers to dig up their cyber defenses, “using next-generation technologies built specifically with AI power to stay ahead of the curve. attackers. ”
Many energy companies are beginning to adopt AI – which is similar to human intelligence by analyzing data to make decisions – to stay ahead of the cybercriminals and hackers backed by foreign government. . Using its ability to analyze large amounts of data very quickly, AI software can detect trends that may be the work of hackers trying to access a system. The technology can also analyze the techniques used in previous cyberattacks, giving system operators tools needed to detect and prevent the next attack.
“AI is becoming mainstream and increasingly being used for security,” said Simonovich.
Reaching out, creating partnerships
As some energy companies shift their work to meet the challenges of digital transformation and cyber security, they often reach out to AI software providers such as Austin-based Spark Cognition, which has their patented machine learning algorithms protect the company’s clients from over 400,000 new ones. variants of malware detected each year.
“Our main advantage is to prevent zero-day malware, without the need for updates to your anti-malware,” said Vice President Phillippe Herve.
Other oil and gas players have partnered with companies across a wide range of disciplines to develop their own digital solutions. Royal Dutch Shell, for example, has partnered with software company AI C3ai, Microsoft’s digital technology giant and oil services technology company Baker Hughes to develop a suite of digital products for cybersecurity and other goals.
“The threat is really bad,” said data science general manager Dan Jeavons Shell. “Cybersecurity is very important to us.”
He said to ensure its AI technology does not expose the company to potential cyber threats, Shell uses the same level of technical protection in its data science operations as it does. i in the other fields of engineering and science.
“We are also careful about how far we go. Many of our systems are in a consultative rather than a fully controlled mode, ”he said. “People are still making decisions. ”