The continuous and reliable operation of critical cyber assets infrastructure components has been deemed by many countries to be in their national interests. Consequently, policies and regulations have been promulgated to provide guidance to plant owners about how to protect the processing plants, both physically and electronically. For example, in the United States the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued Special Publication 800-82 Guide to Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security as well as other publications to provide recommendations for computer security.
The information technology systems of these critical processing plants are integrated into the overall information technology operation of the entity, either private or public. This integration may create vulnerabilities permitting operational interference or disruption inadvertently or from hostile intent. A leading method of protecting the information technology used to operate these critical processing plants is to deny external access at the established electronic perimeter. The need to share plant operation data continues and must be satisfied. The timely and secure transfer of plant processing data from its sensors, plant systems and databases to areas of interest outside the secure electronic perimeter are tasks Owl Computing delivers at the electronic perimeter providing information necessary to meet business and engineering objectives.
