Keywords
OT security, control room, KVM technology, integration, legacy systems, remote access, cybersecurity, control rooms, anomaly detection, critical infrastructure
Summary
Dirk Lüders, Director of Marketing & Sales International at Jungmann Systemtechnik, talks to host Klaus Mochalski about his experiences as a turnkey solution provider for control rooms, the advantages of KVM systems, and the challenges posed by outdated DOS legacy systems and strictly regulated mouse drivers.
Takeaways
Unlike AI-based systems, which often work with probabilities (e.g., “95% probability of an attack”), control room operators value 100% completeness.
The challenge is to structure this wealth of information in such a way that the operator is not overwhelmed by false alarms, but still notices every anomaly.
KVM technology helps to visually integrate different systems without having to intervene deeply in the software of the process control systems.
Installing security software directly on control systems often leads to warranty losses. Hardware solutions or external gateways are therefore often necessary, but expensive.
VPN is standard for remote maintenance and backup control rooms, but is seen by security experts as a potential gateway.
Sound Bites
Klaus Mochalski: “There are customers who say yes, this definitely has to be included, because in the end, whether there is a technical malfunction that is naturally displayed in the control room or whether it is a cyberattack, the same processes must be used.”
Dirk Lüders: "The first time I came into contact with this was, let's say, about four years ago, when the discussion simply came up: “Hey, how do we approach this? How do we do it? What are the issues there?”"
Dirk Lüders: "I'm a huge fan of potential-free contacts. That may sound totally old school to many people. The thing always works. It's just the lowest common denominator and the safest. No one can hack into such a system via the potential-free contact."
Dirk Lüders: “We at JST, I like to say, are like the umbrella above [...] in principle, we only connect what the customer has in terms of systems.”
Dirk Lüders: “What the customer always tells us, of course, is that we mustn't miss any events. Every event must be displayed on our system.”
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:14 First experiences with OT security
05:06 Challenges in setting up a control room
08:06 Integration of security events into control systems
10:05 KVM technology and its role
14:26 Legacy systems and their challenges
21:37 Security aspects of remote access
24:30 Outro
