Senior researcher of the Institute of Information Technology of ANAS, PhD in technical sciences Mammad Hashimov made a report on "Cyber security problems in cloud-based SCADA systems" at the plenary session of the international conference held with the support of NATO.

He spoke about the security of cloud-based SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems, which are widely used in monitoring and management of the oil and gas industry. He said that SCADA systems are an industrial control and management system that centrally manages and controls geographically distributed technological equipment. SCADA system collects data in real time, performs local or remote control:

“These systems control real-time technological processes based on large amounts of data from drilling rigs, transmitters or other control sensors. Because traditional SCADA systems are very expensive, inflexible, and difficult to scale, there are numerous problems with data collection, transmission, and processing.”

Hashimov said that the use of cloud-based SCADA systems in order to automate systems, increase efficiency and revenue opportunities in the oil and gas industry is growing. He noted that cloud technologies, in addition to providing mass storage and sharing solutions, combine various types of hardware and software to meet the information needs of the oil and gas industry. The transfer of SCADA system applications to the cloud environment allows for cost reduction, improved scalability, efficient system management, increased reliability, and resource solutions.

“The study identifies gaps that could hinder the security of cloud-based SCADA systems,” he said, noting that security measures and risk assessment in cloud-based SCADA systems are important. To this end, he said, security problems and risks in the use of cloud-based SCADA systems were analyzed and suggestions were made to help solve them.