Case Study
Global Oil & Gas Company Maintains Industrial
Control System Security
Industrial control solution delivers superior cyber security, compliance, and situational
awareness while lowering costs.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CUSTOMER PROFILE
● Produces 3M+ barrels of oil and natural gas
daily
● Employs more than 90,000 employees
● Operates in more than 70 countries globally
● Supplies a third of world’s liquefied natural
gas
● Known for innovative use of technologies
CHALLENGE
● Global operating arena with heterogeneous
infrastructure and applications
● Hundreds of suppliers with varying capabilities
● Engineering and IT skill and competency
differences
● Hundreds of field locations (some very
remote)
GOALS
● ICS equipment procured, designed, deployed,
standardized, and maintained against one set
of requirements
● All projects/assets report compliance centrally
● Zero unplanned disruptions to operations,
zero impact to product or brand due to cyber
incidents, zero HSSE incidents
Challenge: Changing Landscape, Evolving Threats
One of the world’s largest oil and gas companies operates safely in
some of the world’s toughest conditions, while producing more than
3 billion barrels of oil and natural gas a day across 70 countries.
From the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the subarctic
temperatures of Russia’s Far East to the deserts of the Middle East,
this company is focused on meeting the world’s demand for energy,
As a global steward for society that sustains life through the use of
energy in its many forms, this company feels a strong responsibility
to prevent environmental, cyber, political, and operational threats.
Cyber attacks, operational risks, and compliance are top concerns
for the oil and gas industry, and these concerns are multiplied when
operating in hundreds of locations. To address the challenges of
increasing growth and complexity in facilities, new and evolving
threats to the energy industry, and specifically in the industrial
control system (ICS) domain, this customer needed a secure
solution. The solution would need to increase their security maturity,
cyber security, and compliance, while lowering cost of delivery and
operations.
®
CISCO SECURE OPS SOLUTION
● Center: Managed SecureCenter
● Site: SecureSite (Enhanced Availability)
RESULTS
● Increased business agility and risk awareness
● Lower cost of operations and reduced
downtime
● Customer’s ICS operational and security goals
are achieved
The Solution: Cisco Secure Ops
With a focus on security maturity and compliance at more than 50
upstream, downstream, and lubricant sites, the customer selected
the Cisco® Secure Ops solution. The innovative Cisco delivery model
had earned the customer’s trust. Cisco combines its industry-leading
network and security expertise with the best Industrial Control
System Engineering companies in the world to bring advanced
safety and industrial control system expertise.
The commercial model (XaaS) is equally important to the success of this Secure Ops solution. Using this model,
the customer significantly reduces upfront capital expenditures. Cisco delivers the end-to-end solution as a
comprehensive service, fully integrated into the client’s environment, and adhering to key performance indicators
and an established service-level agreement (SLA).
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Page 1 of 2
The Cisco Secure Ops Solution includes remote management, proactive monitoring and SLA-driven management
of applications and infrastructure. A set of Cisco-owned routers, switches, firewalls, and controllers with virtualized
applications are also installed at each of the more than 50 sites. The customer has initially chosen the Managed
SecureCenter option, which allows the data center to be customer owned while the central applications and
operational processes are managed by Cisco and the Industrial Control System delivery partner.
“One of the things that is incredibly important …is our critical
infrastructure. Whether that's refineries, or wells or lubricant plants, we
need to protect that critical infrastructure. So, we asked Cisco to join
with us in a comprehensive solution.”
— Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Global Oil and Gas Company
SecureSite is the software and infrastructure (router, firewall, and application hosting) that is installed on premise
at each managed site. It provides a means of establishing a secure tunnel from the Process Control Network
(PCN) to the SecureCenter and is able to orchestrate asset discovery, automated workflows, compliance checking,
and log collection for PCN hosts. It also provides a firewall service for secure system-to-system communication
between systems in the PCN.
Cisco leverages the delivery partners’ extensive knowledge of the Industrial Control System environment and
health, safety and security (HSSE) certifications to handle physical deployment and support third-party software
solutions with compelling service-level agreements.
A global service desk is staffed by engineering and information technology experts to help ensure that when calls
come from remote sites, an engineer who can relate to what the caller is experiencing in a specific environment is
ready and able to assist.
Results
The Cisco Secure Ops solution has enabled this global oil and gas company to realize its goals. Being able to
confidently and quickly manage risks and mitigate security tshreats has increased business agility, lowered cost of
operations and security, and significantly reduced downtime. In one year, Cisco delivered the solution on-time and
on-budget.
For More Information
Visit the Cisco Secure Ops solution website.
Printed in USA
© 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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