A Case Study of Implementing Cybersecurity Best Practices for Electrical Infrastructure in a Refinery

Cybersecurity is quickly becoming one of the most important and potentially impactful risks to a process or refining facility. Cybersecurity solutions for electrical infrastructure can be challenging to implement due to the large number of devices which utilize a single set of passwords. To mitigate these risks, potential solutions can be expensive, inefficient, and time consuming to maintain. This paper describes a case study of developing and implementing cybersecurity best practices for electrical infrastructure at a refining facility with a low cost and low maintenance approach. The design approach for this case study employs a centralized solution to implement role-based user access control, automated device password management, and a centralized data aggregation and human machine interface platform. The paper will discuss the development of the cybersecurity best practices, design and implementation of the automation and cybersecurity platform, operations and maintenance, and lessons learned.

I. INTRODUCTION

As technology becomes more powerful and less expensive, it is constantly being implemented in new areas and applications. One area that technology has recently become much more prevalent is electrical protection and control (P&C) systems, particularly for medium and low voltage infrastructure.