Cyberattacks against control and safety systems in the petroleum industry can cause physical damage to facilities, endanger personnel on board, and disrupt the security of energy supply to Europe. Digitalization can also be leveraged to enhance safety, for example by ensuring effective control of barriers that help prevent accidents from occurring. These barriers—both technical (such as intrusion detection systems) and non-technical (such as operators in security control centers monitoring industrial control systems)—complement normal control measures and are designed to address abnormal situations.
Barrier management systems have long been established for traditional safety measures against accidental events but are less developed for intentional events such as cyberattacks. Establishing cybersecurity barrier management, and integrating it with existing safety barrier management, has been the focus of this project. The work has been carried out in close collaboration with Equinor, Aker BP, the CDS-forum on cybersecurity in industrial control systems (with 27 participating companies), and external experts.
The results are consolidated into a guidance on integrated safety and cybersecurity barrier management and three supporting documents: