New PAS Sensor Data Integrity module helps improve configuration consistency

Operational technology (OT) security company, PAS Global announced on Tuesday the Sensor Data Integrity module that enables industrial organizations to ensure configuration data integrity for smart and traditional sensors with signal tracing and validation. With the addition of the new module to the company’s Automation Integrity component, industrial organizations can help reduce both process safety and cyber risk in support of digital transformation and Industrie 4.0 initiatives.

Using the Sensor Data Integrity module, users will deliver multi-vendor discovery of smart, industrial IoT, and traditional analog sensors, visibility to the complete inventory and potential cyber vulnerability for sensors, and creation of templates to define the approved configuration for each sensor type, PAS said in a press statement.

Part of Texas-based Hexagon, PAS delivers software offerings that prevent, detect and remediate cyber threats. It also helps reduce process safety risks, optimize profitability, and enable trusted data for decision-making.

The Sensor Data Integrity module also features automated detection of configuration errors, automated identification of devices that do not match assigned templates, enables cross-checking of parameters with support for large-scale, multi-site sensor deployments. It also offers sensor signal tracing, validation, and visualization capabilities.

“The expansion of smart sensors is making it increasingly difficult for operations teams to monitor for configuration drift and inconsistencies,” said Eddie Habibi, PAS Founder. “This means teams are spending more time trying to find issues instead of correcting them, which increases the risk of poor plant performance and cyber vulnerabilities. PAS, now part of Hexagon, is the first technology provider addressing this challenge with a multi-vendor solution that works across OT systems.”

The information provided by Sensor Data Integrity can also be leveraged by sensor asset management systems (AMS) to support instrument calibration and can feed PAS Cyber Integrity to support cybersecurity vulnerability assessments, wrote Matt Selheimer, PAS’ chief marketing officer in a company blog post.

As industrial organizations expand their deployment of smart sensors, it is becoming increasingly more complex to manage configuration consistency across field device management, distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), safety instrumented systems (SIS), and other OT systems.

The ability to manage the complex configuration of millions of multi-vendor sensors consistently has become a major challenge for industrial companies, PAS said. The lack of effective sensor management also puts digital transformation initiatives at risk of falling short of their intended benefits, potentially wasting multimillion-dollar investments.

Last July, PAS Global announced its Cyber Integrity offering that includes in-product expansion to support industrial organizations as they mature their OT cybersecurity capabilities. The cyber risk for critical infrastructure and process industries has increased, as digitization projects and remote work requirements have expanded the attack surface. Industrial organizations are focusing more on addressing cyber risk but are at different stages of maturity.

Anna Ribeiro

Industrial Cyber News Editor. Anna Ribeiro is a freelance journalist with over 14 years of experience in the areas of security, data storage, virtualization and IoT.