OT CYBERSECURITY – CHEMICAL

Red Trident offers one of the most effective and affordable risk assessment tools available. Our solution helps us quickly review your business processes and clearly measure risk within your environment. You will receive an easy-to-read report showing the most likely threats you face, how those threats could impact your business, and how your current security controls protect you. For chemical operators that impact is measured the way you already measure it – lost and off-spec production, unplanned shutdown and restart time, environmental release, and the safety consequences your process hazard analysis already documents. We also highlight the dollar value of each control, so you can see how your investment directly lowers your risk. This gives you clear, actionable insights – and helps your team, including finance and plant leadership, understand exactly how your security spending is making a difference.

The safety instrumented system is the last automated barrier between a process upset and a serious event, and it is more connected every year. IEC 61511 expects a security risk assessment for the SIS, and that expectation is where a lot of otherwise mature programs have a gap. Red Trident assesses how your SIS is actually separated from the basic process control system – whether that separation is physical, logical, or simply asserted in a document but never implemented – how engineering workstations and configuration software reach it, how bypasses and overrides are authorized, controlled, and logged, and whether a compromise of the process control network could plausibly reach the safety layer. We also help you line this work up with the process safety work you already do, so that a cyber-initiating event is represented in your PHA and LOPA studies rather than treated as out of scope. If your safety and security programs currently report to different people and never meet, this is usually the highest-value place to start.

Most OT security firms have never commissioned a DCS. We have. Chemical control environments are dominated by a handful of platforms – DeltaV, PCS 7, Experion, Ovation, 800xA – each with its own patching realities, its own vendor support agreement, and its own opinions about what you are allowed to change without voiding support. That matters enormously, because the honest answer to “why has this workstation not been patched” is often “the vendor has not qualified it,” not negligence. We work within those constraints rather than pretending they do not exist. We plan change around the windows you actually have, which for many sites means a turnaround every two to five years and very little else, and we sequence work so the highest-risk items land in the window rather than whatever was easiest to schedule. Batch operations add recipe management, electronic records, and MES integration to the picture, all of which cross the boundary between the plant and the business. We help you secure those integrations without breaking the data flow your operation depends on.

Choosing the right OT cybersecurity controls for a chemical plant is tough – especially when you need solutions that work, survive an audit, and fit your budget. Many operators come to Red Trident after realizing their current controls are hard to manage or don’t actually protect them as expected. At Red Trident, we help you make smart choices by explaining the pros and cons of different security options. We use the latest threat intelligence to show you which risks matter most and where controls will have the biggest impact – at the plant boundary, at the process control network, or at the safety system. We factor in the constraints you actually live with: control loops that cannot tolerate latency, SIL-rated equipment that cannot be modified casually, vendor support agreements that limit what you can change, and turnaround windows that come around once every few years. Every site is unique, so we work with you to build the best plan, then support you during design, factory and site acceptance testing, and step-by-step rollout. With Red Trident, you get security controls that truly fit your needs.

Building a strong OT cybersecurity program can be overwhelming, with so many options and questions to consider. Many organizations jump into technical solutions that don’t last or lack a clear plan to truly reduce risk. Red Trident helps you cut through this confusion by taking a “systems of systems” approach – making sure every solution works together, fits your goals, and adds real value to your operations. Our modular method breaks down the process into six clear steps: Standards Selection – Choose the right cybersecurity framework for your needs, like IEC 62443, NIST 800-82, ISO 27001, or a custom mix built around your corporate standard. Risk Management Approach – Integrate your existing risk processes, or let us introduce proven industry methods such as FAIR or OCTAVE. Key Roles and Players – Identify and engage the right people early, making sure the program fits operations, engineering, process safety, and leadership – not just compliance. Program Development – Guide you through building a clear, effective program that your entire team understands and supports. Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) – Track gaps and future improvements so you can address them over time. Continuous Improvement and Monitoring – Keep your program active and useful, supporting regular testing, incident response, and ongoing security needs. Red Trident customizes every OT cybersecurity program to your size, business goals, and compliance needs, whether regulatory or internal. Our focus is building lasting protections that keep the plant running safely – not just checking boxes for an audit.

Whether you have a robust cybersecurity program or are just getting started, Red Trident can be your last line of defense when things go wrong. Our Incident Response service is here to help you prepare and react. We run tabletop exercises to test your readiness – including the scenarios that matter most to a chemical operator, like losing view of the process in the control room, being forced to run a unit on manual, or having to decide whether an event warrants a controlled shutdown – help you build a solid response plan, and can step in as your response team if a breach occurs. Because a cyber event at a chemical site can quickly become a safety and environmental event, we help you connect your cyber response plan to the emergency response and notification procedures your site already runs, so the two do not operate as separate playbooks during the worst hour of your year. With Red Trident, you’re never alone during a crisis – help is always ready when you need it most.