Oil And Gas Data Security: What You Need To Know

Cyber-crime is high on the radar for most large organizations in today's "race to digital" climate, but Oil and Gas companies arguably have the most to lose if and when a cyber-security breach occurs.

With the rise in automation and SCADA in the oil and gas industry, maritime processes are becoming faster and much leaner. This is a great thing for production, but leaves a much wider entry for hackers and cyber attacks for the oil and gas sector.

These attacks lead to more than just a loss in reputation. Historically, large breaches have lead to loss of corporate assets, leaks in public infrastructure, and decrease in future data safety.

This inevitably, leads to disruption of the market and possibly an increase in the cost of mining these viable energy sources.

While outsourcing your IT to the proper managed service provider can mitigate lots of risks, there are other steps that companies can take to ensure their survival of security breaches internally too: 

1. Know that the "smarter" your organization gets in regard to going digital and adopting the latest technology, the more your security must be beefed up.

This requires companies to focus on ALL the traditional security bases, such as:

• Endpoint security to network
• Perimeter security
• Security within the data centers
• Advanced threat protection
• Identity & Access Management
• Application security
• Security Intelligence & Monitoring of Operational Technology (OT)
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• SCADA
• Industrial security along with IT

It is also important to note the requirements of your industry. With the high adaption of Internet of things, organizations need to know their security and compliance. For example, apart from the Critical Infrastructure standard and specific industry standard for energy, oil and Gas like NIST, CIS, ISO27001/2, PCI DSS, IOT to have standard such as ISA, ISO, IEEE, Fieldbus, Ethernet to name a few.

2. Consider reevaluating your initial investment in access permission, validation via ID, and attendance verification.

The ultimate success of the future oil and gas organization is going to entirely depend on how much it is willing to invest in the necessary security measures; top to bottom. The higher this becomes a priority, the easier you can rest your head on your pillow at night.

3. Ensure that all security measures are implemented from a central point!

This allows for much better overall management as well as addressing all compliance and regulatory requirements when audits come around. Managing from a central point allows for much smoother transitioning between the functions of your security systems while also allowing your IT personnel much better monitoring capabilities.

Even though technology is a must for certain realms and operations in the oil and gas sector, not all companies are up to speed with implementing the appropriate security for the latest tech advancements.

When your focus is on producing faster and cheaper, any technology that allows for that tends to blind owners in regard to the increase in susceptibility to security breaches.

This is why it is important for start ups in the oil and gas sector, or companies that have been in the game for decades, to obtain the services of a knowledgeable IT service provider so that the company can focus on what they do best. 

With all of the complexities involved with compliance and IT security, it is important to  make sure that your company is prioritizing the right protective measures by constantly reviewing your cyber security plans and strategy. If you are unaware or uneducated in what you need, ignorance is a sore excuse once a breach occurs. You can leverage the insights and expertise of security service providers to ensure that they remain in the loop with current happenings.