HIMA provides Remote Maintenance for Smart Safety and Cybersecurity

Editor’s brief: With COVID-19 defining how we work and live, many people are forced to work from home (WFH). Yet, there are critical infrastructures and industries that have to remain in operation, and employees have to be on site, risking their lives potentially to COVID-19. And ILO (International Labor Organization) mentioned that more than 1.1 million people die from work accidents and work-related diseases in Asia Pacific. These are dire statistics. HIMA, the world leader in Smart Safety solutions, which saw its solutions deployed in railways and mass transit systems, petrochemical plants, nuclear plants, and other hazardous installations, recently announced the availability of Remote Access and Maintenance for its HIMA Smart Safety Platform (SSP), allowing remote maintenance of critical and hazardous industrial plants and facilities. This is a great application for hazardous businesses to adhere to work/site safety regimes such Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s “Safety Case Regime for Major Hazard Installations (MHI)”. Read more below.

SINGAPORE – The HIMA Group introduced a solution for remote maintenance in the industrial context, living up to the standards set by the HIMA Smart Safety Platform (SSP), the world’s first scalable safety platform with built-in cybersecurity. The HIMA Group presented the upcoming roadmap and new services complementing the SSP at the 24th Annual ARC Industry Forum held earlier this year.

As the HIMA SSP offers a future-proof solution to the process industry that is both safe and secure, the new remote maintenance solution is the perfect and logical addition: It helps to reduce operating costs and increases productivity, while the combination with SSP is protecting the plant against the growing risk of cybersecurity attacks.

“Having both safety and security in mind, many companies face a tough choice, when making a decision regarding remote maintenance”, says Dr. Alexander Horch, VP R&D and Product Management at HIMA. “On the one hand, everybody can see the potential of substantial cost advantages if remote maintenance of process systems is carried out via public networks. On the other hand, though, there are substantial security risks to be reckoned with as well. If a company hasn’t established effective protection mechanisms, it only takes one weak spot to jeopardize the entire production process. With SSP we made the ‘core’ secure and now we follow up with a complete unitary solution or remote access, which meets highest requirements regarding safety and security.”

Remote maintenance solution fulfilling highest standards for safety and security

To address the challenges all companies in the industrial context face, HIMA’s remote maintenance solution fulfils the highest standards for safety and security, without any restrictions on scalability. HIMA clients and new customers alike can easily implement a secure remote maintenance system which conforms to requirements set by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Hardware, software and support come all from one source, reducing complexity perceptibly.

Future roadmap includes data diodes

The future roadmap focuses on the secure connection of mobile workers, encrypted communication via the internet, interface control and internal network segmentation with firewalls, as well as the networking of highly critical systems and ‘data diodes‘. Data diodes are integral components of modern automation systems such as NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA) or Open Process Automation. Secure data transmission from a highly sensitive area to a less sensitive one places high demands on the components. Especially when all boundary conditions for performance, operability, economy and safety are taken into account.

To find out more about HIMA’s Safety Case consulting, visit https://safetycasesg.com.

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