50-200
Western Europe
Green energy
The question
Parkwind manages four wind farms off the Belgian coast and one in German waters. Whereas no security standards were required for the construction of the first offshore wind farms some fifteen years ago, Europe is now advocating the roll-out of thorough cyber security for all critical infrastructure. Parkwind therefore came to e-BO with the request for a total OT security package, for the security of its installations at sea and on land.
Our response
e-BO Enterprises is currently implementing its OT security concept in Parkwind’s parks. Our specialists first performed a complete audit of the existing network. That audit served as the starting point for a renewal trajectory.
In the first phase e-BO Enterprises installed new firewalls at the wind farms themselves, with up-to-date software that meets the latest security standards. At the same time we have renewed the infrastructure in the two data centres of Parkwind in Zeebrugge.
In a second phase e-BO Enterprises is working on the servers of the wind turbines and the substations at sea. Among other things, we want to consolidate the existing systems of external parties on the shared infrastructure. This will enable us to configure and install the applications according to the correct security rules.
The last part of the project involves monitoring. We are implementing a platform to detect and mitigate possible incidents, such as cyber attacks, as early as possible.
Technical specs
- Network: Fortinet firewalls
- Hardware: VxRail by Dell EMC
The result
Once the project phase at Parkwind has been completed, we continue to support the expanded solution. We on-board Parkwind as a customer in the e-BO service centre, monitor the operation of our systems and provide monthly reporting and technical debriefing. The account managers of e-BO Enterprises maintain monthly meetings with the customer.
Cybersecurity is essential for the protection of a wind farm. If a wind farm suddenly shuts down due to an IT or security incident, which is not inconceivable in the current times, the costs for the wind farm manager quickly mount up. The investment in cybersecurity eliminates the risk of an incident – resulting in loss of revenue and reputation – as much as possible. With e-BO Enterprises we offer a complete end-to-end package for the OT security of a wind farm.
