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In a recent edition of the Field Service Podcast, Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland sat down with Patrick Jansen, Field Service Manager, VBR Turbines, about why they decided to undertake an in-depth build of their own bespoke IoT solution.

"It all started about 6 years ago. We are an MRO (maintenance and repair organisation)  so we do own anything, we don't produce anything, our business is service. We saw that our market was changing. There was knowledge drain, changes in the labour market and more." Jansen explained. 

"So we started to look at what our service deliver should be like ten years from now and alongside that how could we overcome the challenges that we face in the labour market and how could we address the knowledge drain with our customers. There were a couple of things that saw needed to be done.

"One of the main drivers for us was to create an additional tool to facilitate remote support for the customer but also do diagnostics on the assets. This is because in the energy market within Europe has changed significantly." he added.

One such change has been the shift within the energy sector is that the traditional way of working with a predictive maintenance schedule was to base the schedule on running hours, but this is no longer an appropriate methodology as the amount of running hours has reduced. 

However, there were other benefits that Jansen and the team at VBR Turbines were able to benefit from - including the reduction in training time for new engineers. 

"The remote solutions can help people to get trained faster, the time to training a field service engineer really dramatically reduced." Jansen added. 

 

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Report highlights that threat actors are advanced and persistent, but companies are using outdated systems and technology to save money. Poor security posture, prioritization, and awareness are also gifts to attackers. 

Malicious actors are targeting critical infrastructure (CNI) sites and energy distribution facilities exponentially. Interconnected systems in the energy industry increase vulnerabilities, and cyber attacks often go undetected for some time.

As energy companies save costs against the backdrop of lower oil prices, consolidating operations can weaken business resilience and redundancy levels. This gives rise to new, single critical points of failure, with any disruption across the supply chain potentially having increased consequences.

“Espionage and sabotage attacks against CNI organizations have increased over the years and I don’t think we have seen it all yet,” says Sami Ruohonen, Labs Threat Researcher at Finnish cyber security company F-Secure.

Connecting Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to the Internet is increasing, and a considerable number of CNI systems in use today were installed and built before 24/7/365 internet connections were the norm and the advent of Stuxnet. Many Operational Technology (OT) components have built-in remote operation capabilities, but are either partly or entirely lacking in security protocols such as authentication.

Moreover, cyber security was not a realistic threat when these systems were manufactured, and legacy protocols and systems never had the built-in security controls that we take for granted today. Transitioning these systems to the Internet has opened them up to attacks from a myriad of angles.

“Critical Infrastructure due to its nature is an interesting target for a foreign nation-state, even during peacetime,” Ruohonen explains.

F-Secure’s report shows that:

• A variety of different adversaries, each with their own motivations and tradecraft, constantly strive to compromise organizations that operate critical infrastructure
• Attackers have more time than their targets and will take months to plan their attack
• People are the weakest link in production, with company employees seemingly being criminals’ go-to target
• Attackers continue to succeed mainly due to organizations’ lack of mature cyber security practices
• Nation-state sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are relentless, and continue to seek network foothold positions on CNIs and espionage opportunities in the interests of exercising political leverage
• Nine different attackers/malwares/techniques targeting the energy industry stand out, with spear phishing being the most common initial supply chain attack technique
• Keeping a small attack surface in the energy industry – while often pitched as the best way to mitigate the risk of a cyber attack – is simply not possible

While breaches are a certainty, Ruohonen advises organizations review their cyber security posture to implement latest technologies such as an endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution.

“EDR is a quick way to tremendously increase capabilities to detect and respond to advanced threats and targeted attacks which might bypass traditional endpoint solutions,” he explains. “Managed EDR solutions can provide monitoring, alerting, and response to cover the needs 24/7. This means organizations’ IT teams can operate during business hours to review the detections while a specialized cybersecurity team takes care of the rest,” says Ruohonen.

The complete report is available here.

Research Nester has recently announced its latest research on “Global Internet of Things (IoT) in Energy Sector Market: Global Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023”.

Rapid growth of urbanization across the globe is changing the way of using devices and things present in the technological environment. Internet of Things (IoT) in energy sector includes the devices and software which have connectivity feature with internet. The devices are embedded with sensors, chips, and others to enhance the user’s experience and to increase the operational efficiency of the operations in energy sector.

These devices and software are efficient to operate various tasks with less time consuming methods. The growing need of internet enabled devices and rising need of internet connectivity are some of the major factors which are anticipated the positive growth of internet of things in energy sector globally. Technological advancements in semiconductors offer the advantages to develop lightweight and efficient devices which are much smarter than the conventional and heavy devices. Internet of things (IoT) in energy helps the sector to reduce the loss of resources and also help them to optimize the use of available resources through smart grids.

Moreover, rising need of remote monitoring systems and internet enabled devices had supported importance of internet of things (IoT) in energy sector especially in utility and power distribution. These devices and systems enabled to operate efficiently and serve better to consumers.

Likewise, the energy management provides ease to various end-use industries such as Power, Oil & gas and mining industries to minimise the energy losses which further cuts down the operational cost. Wide-scale availability and diversity in technological devices are providing ease to the energy sector to adopt latest technology. On the other hand, mining and petroleum industries are also looking forwards to real-time monitoring systems to manage the mobile workforce. The growing concern towards energy management is one of the major factors which are fuelling the demand for internet of things (IoT) devices and software.

 

The connected devices help the users to maintain their lead time and increase their operational efficiency. The demand for power and fuel is growing in developing countries across the globe due to rapid pace infrastructural development. These factors are creating a huge pressure on the energy sector to increase the supply by utilising their resources efficiently.

Further, rapid pace development in energy sector including the power and oil & gas sector is changing the ecosystem of these sectors. Urbanization across the globe is increasing the demand for resources such as fuel, power and others. In addition to this, the robust pace in smart cities and smart infrastructure in various developed countries such as U.S. and others are encouraging the energy sector to adopt advanced technology such as internet of things (IoT).

Moreover, the smart power grids are showcasing a tremendous growth on the back of rapid adoption of IoT in energy. The construction of smart power grids with hundreds of sensors and devices further help the energy sector to increase the response and supply.

Privatization and newer regulations is expected to increase the penetration of internet of things in energy sector. Government authorities are taking initiatives in developing regions such as Asia-Pacific, Europe and others to strengthen the energy sector by adopting internet of things (IoT) in energy sector. The setting up of smart cities along with growing concern towards optimisation of resources is bolstering the growth of IoT in energy. However, issues related to security and privacy of data and connectivity of devices is the major restraint for the market which is creating cynicism among the end-use sector.

Furthermore, high cost of internet of things devices and software is one of the major reasons which are hampering the growth of IoT in energy sector. The global internet of things (IoT) in energy market reached USD 6.8 Billion in 2015 and the market is expected to reach USD 26.5 Billion by 2023.Further the market is projected to register a CAGR of 15.5% during the forecast period 2016-2023 globally. The internet of things comprises devices and software that enable connectivity and exchange of information.

 

From a field service perspective it is interesting of course to see yet further evidence in the rapid rise of IoT given the comprehensive impact it is set to have on our industry.

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To know more about this research visit: http://www.researchnester.com/reports/global-internet-of-things-iot-in-energy-sector-market-global-demand-analysis-opportunity-outlook-2023/256

 

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