DHS-led program focuses on cyber security for oil and gas industries | 01.31.2007 | 08:03:53 | Views: 4696 | ID: January 31 '07: A Department of Homeland Security-led cyber security program being supervised by the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico is working to improve the gas and oil industry's ability to thwart a possible cyberterror attack. The Linking the Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cyber Security (LOGIIC) program's focus is to prevent energy supply disruption because of a computer virus or hacker intrusion. The program has been developing over the last 12 months at the national laboratories. 14 private industries and the federal government have been cooperating "to identify ways to reduce cyber vulnerabilities in process control and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisitions) systems." Federal officials as well as industry leaders say that keeping energy supplies running is essential. The fear of a terrorist hacking into an oil distribution line network and shutting the system down is one reason for the project. Another is to help prevent future blackouts from occurring such as the one seen in 2003 in several major American cities. According to EngineerLive.com, a "monitoring system developed in LOGIIC is based on the very latest commercial enterprise detection and correlation technologies adapted to monitor control networks, providing asset owners with dramatically improved situational awareness." That awareness, participants of the program say, will help to create a real-time information sharing and event mitigation scenario so that any possible threat can be addressed quickly and efficiently.
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