Enhancing Distributed Control System (DCS) Cybersecurity with Vendor-Supported Backup and Recovery Solutions

A major public university provides heating, cooling and power generation to their campus. Coal and natural gas boilers provide steam for heating and power generation. The chillers contribute to a loop of piping throughout the campus, supplying chilled water to buildings for cooling.  All of these systems are controlled using Emerson’s DeltaV™ DCS, providing 24/7 operation.

Providing utilities requires strict compliance with federal, state, and local regulations such as NERC and FERC.  The University's Process Control team sought a robust solution that would ensure DCS system reliability, uptime, and security.

Novaspect’s Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Specialists worked in conjunction with the university’s utilities and IT departments to design, configure, and deploy a comprehensive, vendor-supported solution to quickly and easily backup, recover and restore their DeltaV Process Automation System configuration files, databases, and system images in the event of cyberattack, disaster, emergency, or human error.
 
The Backup and Recovery system solution included the following:

• Architecture Design and Recovery Process Documentation to ensure compliance with regulatory and business insurance requirements.
• Setup, installation and testing of primary and replica servers (both onsite and offsite) with scheduled, automatic, and encrypted tape storage of critical system files, servers, and workstations.
• Training to implement new standards and policies with key stakeholders and site team members.
• Twice yearly testing to ensure backups are in a healthy state for recovery.

Within six months from request to deployment, the university added additional layers of protection to strengthen their cybersecurity and disaster recovery safeguards for their critical control system infrastructure.

By partnering with Novaspect, the university’s stakeholders, regulators and insurers have peace of mind and confidence that the control system is guarded with a robust backup and recovery solution that will withstand threats now and in the future.

Move forward in your pursuit of OT cybersecurity and connect with an experienced team you can trust.