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World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
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ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Article . 2025
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
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Securing Legacy SCADA Systems: Practical strategies for the oil and gas industry

Authors: Shewale, Vilas;

Securing Legacy SCADA Systems: Practical strategies for the oil and gas industry

Abstract

Legacy SCADA systems in the oil and gas industry face significant cybersecurity challenges due to aging infrastructure, increasing IT/OT convergence, and evolving threat landscapes. These systems, often designed before cybersecurity was a primary concern, lack modern security features while controlling critical infrastructure components essential for national energy security. The combination of outdated operating systems, proprietary hardware with limited update capabilities, and protocols without authentication or encryption creates substantial vulnerabilities. Complete system replacement is typically impractical due to prohibitive costs and operational disruption risks. This article addresses practical, cost-effective security strategies that can be implemented while maintaining operational integrity. By examining network segmentation, industrial protocol-aware intrusion detection, application whitelisting, host hardening, and unidirectional security gateways, the article presents proven defensive measures specifically tailored for legacy SCADA environments. These approaches acknowledge the operational constraints of industrial control systems while providing meaningful security improvements that significantly reduce exposure to modern cyber threats without requiring wholesale replacement of existing systems.

Keywords

Protocol-Aware Intrusion Detection, Application Whitelisting, Oil and Gas Cybersecurity, Legacy SCADA Security, Unidirectional Gateways, Network Segmentation

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    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
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    popularity
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    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
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    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
1
Average
Average
Average
Green
gold