Cybersecurity Strategies Critical To Production Operations By Peter Zornio and Michael Lester AUSTIN, TX.-Recent advances in digital automation technologies such as cloud-based data analytics, wireless instrumentation, industrial networking and machine learning have opened a world of opportunities hardly imaginable even a decade ago. These new tools and the advent of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have enabled remarkable improvements in efficiency and reliability, but they haven't come without costs. Chief among these, and ultimately owned by digital oil field operators, is the issue of cybersecurity risk. At a time when headlines about industrial terrorism, ransomware and corporate espionage are the new norm, it is clear that oil and gas companies must change their collective culture to solidify a close relationship between their information technology and operational technology functions, and work with automation suppliers and regulators to respond to today's quickly-changing security landscape. FEBRUARY 2019 67