Industrial Automation Magazine India

Legacy automation and control systems are not inherently secure

Published on : Tuesday 30-11--0001

While most companies are today talking of Digital Transformation, do all of them have effective strategies in place for implementation?

Leading industrial companies have moved headlong into pursuing Digital Transformation strategies with initiatives like Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The decision makers have put these initiatives at the top of their agenda, not as technology projects, but for the business opportunities they present. Unfortunately, legacy automation and control systems are not inherently secure. Although next-gen systems have built-in security, industrial companies can't afford to wait until they refresh the entire fleet of assets they must ensure secure operations and enable Digital Transformation today. Honeywell and LNS Research recently conducted a survey examining results from over 1000 survey respondents regarding their approach to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the use of industrial cybersecurity technologies and best practices. The research showed that the majority of companies today are exploring or planning Digital Transformation initiatives, but the adoption of industrial cybersecurity capabilities and technology is shockingly low. As cyberthreats to industrial control environments become more sophisticated, it has also become crucial to train the workforce of the industry for effective cybersecurity implementation. Given the growing challenge, a risk-based approach to optimise industrial cybersecurity investments and put industrial cybersecurity at the top of the strategy is the need of the hour.

What are the impediments in the process of Digital Transformation in the Indian context? Is RoI the key concern?

Digitisation embodied in manufacturing and services improves efficiency, total factor productivity, spill-over effects, transparency and accountability. Two major revolutions, transformation into a manufacturing hub and the digital transformation driven by the Indian government’s vision to digitise the economy to connect and empower the citizens of the country, are driving India’s economic growth. The linking of multiple digital solutions has taken in-plant connectivity beyond the precincts of the traditional plant to multiple locations – extending it to an entire collaborative industrial ecosystem. Quintessentially, this is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). An example of how Honeywell has helped the Indian market in terms of RoI, is the solution offered to the Reliance Jamnagar Refinery. It faced the challenge of connecting different departments and operators across the enterprise for real-time analytics to increase efficacy in a very large operational set-up. Honeywell in collaboration with Reliance developed a Manufacturing Information Intelligence System (MIIS) for the enterprise. This customised solution not only helped Reliance in reducing manual systems and processes, but also made the core functional areas of operations, maintenance, reliability, and safety fully digital. This transformation helped Reliance to improve enterprise connectivity, increase real-time analytics and ultimately profitability of the refinery.

As one of the main drivers of the economy, is the SME sector ready for this transformation?

The SME sector is poised to become a $25.8 billion market for emerging technologies by 2020. Since SMEs can be instrumental in pushing innovation, e-commerce and technology, it is imperative that they embrace digitisation. Hence, the efforts to close the digital skill gap need to be rapid. According to a report titled 'Micro Merchant Market Sizing and Profiling Report', SMEs contribute 45 per cent of India's GDP. This percentage is almost three times what corporate India contributes, and it also shows that the SME sector provides employment to around 46 crore people in India and is registering an annual growth of 11.5 per cent. Today, SMEs need to foster innovation, take their businesses online, accept e-payments, upgrade existing technological know-how and compete globally.

Are privacy and cybersecurity concerns regarding the cloud exaggerated? Are you seeing a rise in demand for Honeywell Industrial Cybersecurity solutions in India?

Digitisation has helped in large-scale and sweeping transformations across multiple aspects of business, providing unparalleled opportunities for value creation, while also representing a major source of risk. In terms of challenges, safety and security are an overriding concern in any industrial enterprise. The number and range of cyberattacks is growing as threats evolve. At Honeywell, industrial cybersecurity is at the core of our strategy. We are the leading provider of cybersecurity solutions that protect the availability, safety and reliability of industrial facilities and help securely deploy IIoT technologies. The rise in demand has led Honeywell to invest in creating several cybersecurity Centres of Excellence (CoE) globally, which are designed for proprietary cybersecurity research and development, test and certification, training and collaboration. Honeywell also has continued to increase its industrial cybersecurity offerings. Two such solutions are Risk Manager, the industry’s first solution to proactively monitor, measure and manage industrial cybersecurity risks, and Secure Media Exchange (SMX), which protects plants against threats from removable media such as USB flash drives. Our offerings are designed to help industrial and critical infrastructure customers identify and eliminate dangerous security weaknesses. Given the growing challenge, we hope to address customer protection in these challenging times.