OMNI Participation in LOGIIC Consortium, a Government-Industry Partnership which Demonstrates New Technologies to Improve the Security of Oil and Gas Critical Infrastructure

13th September 2006

HOUSTON, Texas - September 13th The LOGIIC Consortium yesterday announced the successful completion of a project to improve the security of the Oil and Gas Critical Infrastructure, helping to protect it from cyber security threats, such as viruses, worms, and cyber terrorism. As an important field measurement device, OMNI's configurable flow computer product provided the ability to simulate key process data to generate realistic network traffic for the project's testbed process control and pipeline network. The OMNI instrument also reported data to the network's correlation engine.

The goal of the LOGIIC Correlation Project was to leverage the collective resources of oil and gas companies, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and technology vendors to identify and demonstrate new technologies to help protect oil and gas process control systems.

Oil and gas companies have recognized that their computerized process control systems need to be carefully protected against cyber security threats. Because of increased automation and the introduction of new computer and communications technology to control production, transportation and processing of natural gas and petroleum products, new security technologies are required to guarantee the security and safety of this critical infrastructure.

The results of the LOGIIC Correlation Project delivered an expertly developed, fully tested solution that enables the integration and centralization of security information from all plausible points of entry within oil and gas IT and process control networks. The solution then correlates this information to detect, identify and alert about cyber attacks in progress. This provides a coherent security picture that enables system owners to issue a timely and appropriate response to an attack.
Oil and gas companies can now leverage the results of this project to raise awareness of the need to secure process control systems and adopt a proven solution to mitigate associated cyber-threats.

"OMNI has been at the forefront of many petroleum industry metering and standards initiatives over the past 15 years", said Alan McCartney, OMNI's CEO. "We have a history of continuous development without obsolescence in support of our customers, the energy majors, whose information needs have been met by OMNI's collaborations. To be invited to participate and to donate equipment and resources for such an important project has already been of value to OMNI's ongoing product developments."

The LOGIIC Correlation Project working group was comprised of experts in homeland security, oil and gas, security research, security technology and process control technology.

- Government: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate
- Oil and gas industry: Chevron, CITGO, BP and Ergon Refining
- Research: Sandia National Laboratories, SRI International, and Adventium Labs
- Security vendors: ArcSight, 3Com, and Symantec Corporation
- Process control technology vendors: Honeywell, OMNI Flow Computers and Telvent

The results of this project were shared at the LOGIIC Summit on September 11, 2006, in Houston, Texas. More information, including a summary of the LOGIIC Correlation project and results, can be found at the LOGIIC website http://www.logiic.org.

Omni Information Contact: Bill Griffith 281-240-6161

About the LOGIIC Consortium

The LOGIIC (Linking the Oil and Gas Industry to Improve Cyber Security) Consortium is a model example of a partnership between Government and industry that is committed to combining resources to define and advance the security of the oil and gas industry