I am surprised that it has taken this long for someone to come out with a SCADA iPhone app. Sweet William Automation has come out with an app interface (called SCADAMobile) to access and monitor tag variables/ memory of PLCs via the iPhone. This will allow any plant engineer to know the state of their industrial processes and for PLC programmers to have instant access to their systems.
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ISA18, the Standard for Instrument Signals and Alarms has been around (but rather dormant) since the 2003. Saying that, the standard has experienced a revival this year… the ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009 standard was finally approved on June 12, 2009 (ISA board) and June 23, 2009 (ANSI) respectively.
What is ISA18?
ISA18 is the standard and guideline for alarm systems including annunciators, process automation systems, and the general development, design, installation, and management of alarm systems in the process industries. It’s main purpose is to establish terminology and practices for alarm systems, including the definition, design, installation, operation, maintenance and modification and work processes recommended to effectively maintain an alarm system over time.
ANSI/ISA-18.1-1979(R2004), Annunciator Sequences and Specifications. This standard is primarily for use with electrical annunciators that call attention to abnormal process conditions by the use of individual illuminated visual displays and audible devices. Annunciators can range from a single annunciator cabinet, to complex annunciator systems with many lamp cabinets and remote logic cabinets. The sequence designations provided can be used to describe basic annunciator sequences and also many sequence variations.
ANSI/ISA-18.2-2009, Management of Alarm Systems in the Process Industries. This standard provides requirements and recomendations for the activities of the alarm management lifecyle. Lifecycle stages include philosophy, identification, rationalization, detail design, implementation, operation, maintenance, monitoring & assessment, management of change, and audit.
Update: For those of you who are within the Berks County and Lehigh Valley, PA area, the ISA Lehigh Valley Section is holding a free presentation of ISA18 (by Todd Stauffer, exida) on September 10th. More details on the event here. Registration is necessary; Members/ Non-members are welcome.
This article is an interesting way of how someone can steal data though electrical outlets . Demonstrated at Black Hat 2009 by Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco of network security consultancy Inverse Path, it shows how easy it is to steal data without expensive equipment i.e. with just an electrical grid and line of sight of the machine/ computer in question. (more…)
Any plant floor supervisory or data acquisition system can be done more affordably than ever before if the right approach is taken and the right partnerships are made. (more…)
Here is a good whitepaper from Idaho National Labs describing methods for vulnerability (identification, assessment and resolution) within SCADA systems. It’s four years old (written by May Robin Permann and Kenneth Rohde, Idaho National Labs in 2005) but is still a great reference in terms of it’s organized methodologies.
