Hundreds of billions of dollars are expected to flow into artificial intelligence (AI) and other digitalization efforts in every industry, and they’ll all require massive amounts of energy, equipment and infrastructure—even as they seek to maintain cybersecurity and decarbonize at the same time. How can anyone make sense of these faster-than-ever and accelerating digitalization, technological and economic upheavals?
Well, some of the smarter players and observers in the process industries got on the same page once again at ARC Advisory Group’s 29th annual Industry and Leadership Forum on Feb. 10-13 in Orlando. The event attracted more than 650 attendees, including 75 international visitors from 15 nations. They listened to and interacted with 190 speakers and panelists, and more than 200 exhibitors and visiting companies.
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“We’ve all got lots of production data that could help run our businesses, but it’s usually located all over the place,” said Eryn Devola, sustainability head at Siemens Digital Industries. “It’s a vast and continuous challenge to connect these sources, gain efficiencies, and achieve more value.”
Lizabeth Stuck, VP of government affairs and MxD learning at Manufacturing and Digital Institute, added, “About 95% of the 240,000 manufacturers in the U.S. are small companies. So, when we’re talking about cybersecurity and sustainability, these issues are even more challenging because they don’t have the resources to address them.”
Several presenters and exhibitors at ARC’s event showed how the plug-and-play Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS), recently expanded OPC UA capabilities and other network simplifications can make digitalization and cybersecurity approachable and affordable for a much wider circle of potential users.
Cybersecurity sessions
“We’re still dealing with phishing and ransomware, but AI and digitalization are creating new cybersecurity challenges,” said Sid Snitkin, VP for cybersecurity at ARC. “Cyber-attacks on OT infrastructure are increasing in frequency and impact, which makes it even more important for OT and IT to collaborate on strategies to prevent and respond to them.”
ARC is presently surveying end-user companies about their IT/OT cyber-convergence programs, and has 25 responses, but is seeking more. So far, 70% of respondents report they’re working to converge their IT and OT cybersecurity programs, while 30% feel they’ve accomplished their cybersecurity goals. More than half add that AI and machine learning (ML) will have the greatest impact on the cybersecurity of their plants and companies during the next five years.”
Neal Arnold, regional cybersecurity advisor and law-enforcement liaison at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, added it can check an organization’s network traffic, provide alerts about ransomware and whether it’s been activated, and identify external scans that haven’t been patched, including associated PCs, users names and files.
“Ransomware remains a huge issue, but now there’s more data infiltration and exfiltration. We can find anomalies and vulnerabilities, but humans are still the biggest problem because most cyber-attacks still come from phishing, including increasingly sophisticated like Salt Typhoon,” explained Arnold. “We recommend joining CISA’s Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) program.”
To be cyber-smart, Arnold advises that users:
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect online accounts because it’s more secure than relying only on passwords;
- User strong passwords that are long, unique and randomly generated;
- Learn and get trained to recognize and report phishing by thinking before clicking on questionable links, which could be attempts to get sensitive information or install malware; and
- Don’t delay in updating the software on computing assets by acting prompting on update notifications and tuning on automatic updates.
To respond after a cyber-intrusion or -attack occurs, Arnold advises:
- Immediately report the incident to the proper points of contact in the organization;
- To prevent the infection from spreading further, isolate compromised computers and systems by disconnecting them from the network, but don’t turn them off;
- Try to identify the type of ransomware;
- Work with cybersecurity professionals, who are trained to resolve cyber-incidents; and
- Recover information from backups after they’re tested to ensure their data is safe to restore.
Press conference potpourri
As usual at the ARC event, several suppliers delivered press conferences on their latest solutions, services and other news:
- To reduce the electricity consumption and ownership costs of rotating machinery, Nanoprecise reported on its five-step Energy-Centered Maintenance strategy that includes its EnergyDoctor six-in-one sensor and software-based data storage, cloud computing, and AI and predictive analytics program.
- Hexagon showed how its Alix asset lifecycle intelligence software can retrieve code generation, fine tuning and other data, and reported that it will add database queries and action-generation capabilities in 2025, and will launch prescriptive recommendations later. After acquiring Itus Digital last year, Hexagon is also combining their enterprise asset management (EAM) and asset performance management (APM) software platforms.
- L&T Technology Services unveiled its RefineryNext software that features digital governance and cybersecurity; AI-powered tools for predictive maintenance, intelligent asset management and demand forecasting; sustainability practices lie energy optimization and net-zero carbon compliance; and smart workforce deployment with augmented training and remote operations.
- Schneider Electric demonstrated its SCADAPack for edge computing and control, which uses Python programming software to shape, filter and analyze data, and operational decisions at the edge. It also publishes a software-based HMI via an online server, and integrates with third-party tools, legacy devices and webservers. SCADAPack works with the company’s 470i smart, cyber-secure, remote terminal unit (RTU) that combines the capabilities of an RTU, flow computer and edge controller, protects again denial-of-service attacks, and just added Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and LDAP over secure socket layer (LDAPS) protocol.
