Engineering & Mining Journal

APR 2012

Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr

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COMMUNICATIONS requiring closer attention to network security. • Large mining companies with operations scattered around the globe are pursuing standardization in as many areas of their operations as possible, enabling person- nel to be familiar with corporate prac- tices, technology and equipment wherev- er they are located. The flip side of the coin is that a flaw in one installation of a standardized system could mean a simi- lar flaw exists in all installations. • Companies are increasingly turning to the Internet to enable remote monitoring and control of equipment and processes to cut costs, increase resource efficiency and allow remote users access to import- ant information—but this also increases network vulnerability to digital snoopers, hackers or even disgruntled employees. Taking the standardization trend one step further, recent technological advances now offer companies the ability to consoli- date control of what were once considered separate and unrelated operational activi- ties into an integrated, single package. For example, last year at the AIMEX trade show held in Australia, PSI Production, a sub- sidiary of Berlin, Germany-based PSI AG, exhibited an innovative product called PSImining, claimed to be the first plant- level SCADA system that fully integrates all mining processes and security features into one system providing interdisciplinary supervision, control and high-level automa- tion to mine operators. According to the company, the system on display at AIMEX would allow all impor- tant mine operation processes and sub- processes to be integrated into a central SCADA system featuring a high-perform- ance Human Machine Interface. Demon- strations conducted at the trade show reportedly displayed examples of integrated supervision, control and automation of coal mining, tunneling, product flow optimiza- tion by conveyors, mine infrastructure, material logistics, security, people tracking and maintenance—managed by one single SCADA system. The potential benefits of this type of integrated control system could be enor- mously useful to an industry facing rising operational costs, persistent skilled labor shortages and logistical problems resulting from activities in remote or inhospitable locations. And, in a perfect world, SCADA systems and network devices would never be exposed to the Internet and its threats. But Stuxnet, for example, is capable of www.e-mj.com infecting a system from a removable drive as well as by computer-to-computer trans- mission—and, in the real world, corporate networks may be connected to local or SCADA networks simply because the data carried on those networks is needed to manage the company efficiently, thereby opening another avenue for infection. Worry-free Wireless? The intricacies of IT and SCADA system- security measures are beyond the scope of this article, but the technology at the ground floor of mine communications— the wireless mesh networks that carry site communications and data traffic—is familiar to most mine operators, and on the basis of recent interviews with suppli- ers of these wireless systems, it appears to E&MJ; that data integrity and network security are high on the list of vendors' performance priorities. Bert Williams, marketing director for Tropos Networks, a California-based supplier of secure wireless IP broadband network components, told E&MJ; that, "There's an increasing level of awareness about security in the mining industry as well as other indus- trial segments. Exploits such as Stuxnet and the German smart meter hacking demon- stration have raised awareness in all indus- trial verticals, including mining, that securi- ty by obscurity is not a viable strategy. "[Although] it's hard to rank things such as price, flexibility, ease of installation and security against each other because they're all table stakes to compete with in the mar- ket, security has historically played a less important role than other considerations, but that's changing rather quickly." A technical briefing paper authored by Williams explains the advantages of IP- based wireless field communication net- works: "When built using standard tech- nologies such as 802.11 and/or 802.16, they provide high speed and low latency compared to the proprietary networking technologies traditionally deployed in the field, enabling many field automation applications to run on one network. They are very reliable, especially when tools such as mesh routing and TCP with reliable data delivery are employed. IP networks provide interoperable communications for a pletho- ra of diverse endpoints. Unifying communi- cations for many automation applications on one network provides for economical implementation, central management and consistent, end-to-end security policies." However, along with these benefits, they also have the potential of being hacked using the same tools used to attack Internet sites. The Tropos paper explains that, even so, the techniques used to thwart cyber- attacks on IP networks have been honed for years by enterprises and are constantly being updated by the security community to battle emerging threats. As a result, a robust set of tools have been developed to combat cyber-attacks on enterprise net- works, including wireless. These include: • Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) virtual private networks (VPNs) that authenti- cate the endpoints of a network connec- tion and encrypt data transmission between the endpoints, securing both system access and transmitted data. • Firewalls that permit traffic for only authorized applications, protocols and users to travel over the network while Quick and convenient scalability is an important feature of new-generation wireless mesh networks, allowing wireless- system capacity to keep pace with expanding mine fleets and facilities. (Photo courtesy Tropos Networks) APRIL 2012 • E&MJ; 45

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