Offering Datalogging Solutions for SCADA Security

Control and Alarm Systems Providing Advanced Capabilities

Supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) provide control for industrial equipment used to allocate power, combine chemicals, provide filtration, and many more vital functions. Since last summer when the Stuxnet worm reportedly destroyed Iranian centrifuges controlled by SCADA systems, new SCADA vulnerabilities regularly make international headlines, boosted by a recent unauthorized intrusion into a South Houston water utility. Consequently, SCADA security has become an increasingly critical concern for system owners and prospective customers, but there has been no strong consensus about how to achieve a workable approach. With this in mind, CAS DataLoggers offers a wide range of datalogging products which provide control and alarm capabilities for SCADA systems, ensuring their safety, dependability and integrity.

Occasionally, customers ask CAS Applications Specialists what they can do to protect their supervisory systems from intrusion. The answer is surprisingly straightforward--CAS offers many different datalogging products for system control and alarm, including intelligent dataloggers from bestselling manufacturer dataTaker. These sophisticated solutions can be connected to SCADA systems as a system controller to prevent any physical damage caused by an exploit. The dataTaker data logger acts as an overseer and verifier of the SCADA system’s final physical functions, such as turning a switch on and off or controlling the physical input/output of pump motors. If these physical readings ever go above their preset levels (a potential indicator of system abuse), these data loggers will just shut off the power to prevent any damage and/or immediately send email and SMS through FTP to alert personnel.

Additionally, CAS provides Accsense wireless monitoring and alarming systems which are widely utilized as cost-effective alerting devices to warn personnel whenever parameters such as temperature and humidity, voltage, current and vibration exceed specifications. These convenient systems will even call personnel over the phone as well as sending pager and email alerts, providing a crucial early attack warning tool. Accsense is one of only a few systems on the market which provides this automated voice alert capability.

Summing up these popular systems, Pat Picciano, Systems Analyst and Live Chat operator for CAS DataLoggers, commented, “Our dataTaker products offer control and oversight for SCADA systems to ensure that if a vital parameter suddenly goes out of specification, the datalogger will immediately

respond, for instance by shutting off the power. We also offer wireless Accsense monitoring systems which can easily be setup to notify personnel by phone the moment that safe parameters are exceeded. These devices are a great security measure for SCADA systems, and CAS offers both product lines at a low price.”