GEC NEWS WIRESiemens technology will support the efforts of EQUATE Petrochemical Company to enhance its protection from cyber security threats, following a comprehensive assessment of the industrial control system (ICS) at the company’s marine terminal operation area.
Having carried out an IEC 62443 assessment of network security audit, Siemens will now support EQUATE with an upgrade to the Simatic PCS 7 distributed control system.
“In collaboration with EQUATE’s experts, we were able to analyze production and process infrastructures, and recommend a set of measures that address their specific needs, which in turn supports upgrading the protection of their operations today and in the future” said Herbert Klausner, CEO, Siemens Kuwait.
EQUATE’s VP for Technical services Tareq Jafar Al-Kandari said: “The overall security and reliability of our ICS are key elements of our business at EQUATE. Driven by our human capital’s innovation and ever-increasing desire for progress as cornerstones of success, EQUATE is always evaluating and upgrading all its resources, including systems, to ensure continuous business excellence. For that, we constantly collaborate with suitable partners, including Siemens, to achieve our requirements. In addition, realizing the significance of ICS, EQUATE since 2014 has launched a specialized conference addressing the security of industrial automation in partnership with several reputed organizations, such as Siemens.”
The Siemens Simatic PCS 7 process control system was the first product with IEC 62443 security certification. The system controls and monitors continuous manufacturing processes, such as those in chemical and cement plants, the water and waste water sector, and the pharmaceuticals industry. As plant downtime in these industries can have enormous effects, both functional safety and industrial security are very important.
