Title: Secure remote access to autonomous safety systems: A good practice approach

Authors: Martin Gilje Jaatun, Maria B. Line, Tor Olav Grotan

Addresses: Department of Software Engineering, Safety and Security SINTEF ICT, Trondheim NO-7465, Norway. ' Department of Software Engineering, Safety and Security SINTEF ICT, Trondheim NO-7465, Norway. ' Department of Safety and Reliability, SINTEF Technology and Society, Trondheim NO-7465, Norway

Abstract: Safety instrumented systems (SIS) as defined in IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 are very important for the safety of offshore oil and natural gas installations. Partly as a consequence of the evolving |integrated operations| concept, a need is emerging for remote access to such systems from vendors external to the operating company. This access will pass through a number of IP-based networks used for other purposes, including the open internet. This raises a number of security issues, ultimately threatening the safety integrity of SIS. In this article, we present a layered network architecture that represents current good practice for a solution to ensure secure remote access to SIS. Also, a method for assessing whether a given solution for remote access to SIS is acceptable is described.

Keywords: offshore oil installations; natural gas installations; process control; SIS; safety instrumented systems; secure remote access; autonomous safety systems; security; layered network architecture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAACS.2009.026788

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 2009 Vol.2 No.3, pp.297 - 312

Published online: 26 Jun 2009 *

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