Speaking at the American Petroleum Institute (API) Cybersecurity Conference

I will be speaking at the 19th Annual API Cybersecurity Conference for the Oil & Natural Gas Industry, Nov. 12-13, 2024, at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott in The Woodlands, Texas. The presentation will be during the ICS Cybersecurity session on the afternoon of Nov. 12. The other speakers are Saltanat Mashirova from Honeywell and Jonathan Boyett from Phillips 66.

My presentation will be “Process Sensor Monitoring for Cyber Security, Reliability, and Safety”. Seven years ago, I gave a four-hour short course on control system cybersecurity at that year’s API conference. The responses from the network security attendees were “we wished our engineers were here”. 

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My presentation on the cybersecurity of process sensors affects both the engineers and network security personnel and addresses a critical part of OT cybersecurity and process safety that is often not addressed. As a colleague stated, "I have spent years talking to brick walls and brick heads about the lack of security in field devices. Their response is typically that they are air-gapped and that everything is safe and secure. Irrational fantasy at best. I am not alone in this quest, but I am definitely in a minority.”

Russia, Iran and China have all demonstrated knowledge of the gap in cybersecurity of process sensors. Conversely, monitoring the health of process sensors at the physics level provides an independent “ground truth” validation of OT network monitoring systems.

You can view program details here. For additional information and to register, please visit API.org/cybersecurityconference. I hope to see you there.