Information Technology,
For the Automation World

Because Automation Systems share Municipal IT infrastructure and are exposed to the outside world (directly or indirectly) such as the internet or the airwaves, it is imperative for Municipalities to utilize the expertise of an engineering firm such as Viva Automation to enable them understand its vulnerabilities and develop a plan to protect its assets from unwanted interference.

Lack of operational understanding of an automation system is never a good reason to ignore its security risks and implications that are associated with it.

A proactive approach to Automation System Security starts in the design phase and continues throughout its lifetime.

Here is a list of services offered by Viva Automation:

  • Architecture Assessment - single (such as SCADA) or multi-system environments (such as Office, SCADA, CCTV, Telephone, etc.),
  • Risk Assessment / Management,
  • Incident Response / Management, Defense-in-depth
  • Framework Development,
  • Governance Assessment and Guidance,
  • Access Control (people and assets),
  • Application Security,
  • Policies (computer, internet, data, user, etc.),
  • Network Hardening, Process Automation, Cyber-attack protection
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans,
  • Service Level Agreements,
  • Personnel Training (security standards and best practices)

Please note that all of our IT services are targeted directly at Municipal Systems consisting of normal Office IT environments and their interconnection with Automation Systems. Unfortunately we do not handle Office only IT matters.

  • Inter-Office Connections (VPN, Radio, Fiber, Leased-line, etc.),
  • Penetration Testing,
  • Networking / Security Appliances – design, configuration, analysis, optimization,
  • Intrusion Detection system integration,
  • Centralized Network Monitoring and alarming installations

Whether Automation Server equipment has access to the internet or not, they still require to be kept up-to-date when it comes to updates otherwise their features and ultimately performance would become useless in time. We talk specifically about Windows Updates, Anti-virus definition updates or even SCADA software updates.

It has never been a “Safe Practice” to leave the computers in the same configuration state as they were when first installed. Here are some of the items Viva Automation can help you address:

  • High availability: Software / Hardware Redundancy, Load Balancing
  • Local / Domain integration
  • Security Policies, User Control
  • Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Web Servers
  • Server Updates Services
  • Anti-virus Definitions Distribution (on computers not connected to internet)
  • Secure Data Management (upload, download, sharing)
  • Recovery, Back-up, Imaging, Virtualization