Mr Paul R . Walters PE
Assistant Chief Engineer American Bureau of Shipping , USA
Paul Walters PE is an Assistant Chief Engineer at ABS and is the Integrated Software Quality Management ( ISQM ) Team Lead . He is the principal author of the ISQM Guide and leads a team of naval software engineers implementing software quality to various control systems installed aboard marine , drilling and production assets . Paul ’ s group updated the Systems Verification Guide , ABS ’ Hardware‐ Inthe‐Loop Notation , to align with the ISQM Guide requirements . He developed the ISQM‐Conformity Program as an additional offering within ABS ’ Type Approval to improve supplier software quality . Paul learned the ISQM process early in his career and has followed the software development process in many successful projects . Paul has 30 years ’ experience in the process control industries , programming and integrating control systems as well as instrument selection , power generation and advanced process control . He is fluent in 16 programming languages and is a registered Professional Engineer in the United States , where he worked in refineries and chemical plants before joining ABS .
“ Cyber Security challenges related to Offshore Oil _ Gas & Sea Transport ”
A cyber-safe software control system must be built on well-engineered software to which cybersecurity processes and principles are applied . While this approach helps to create a solid foundation , evolution exposes a software system to patches and updates that can contain software defects and functional nadequacies or errors . Requirements that fail to clearly and accurately communicate the desired functionality negatively affect the system during initial build as well as during systems evolution . Following rigorous software quality development principles , however , tends to reduce the risk of defects and functionality errors . In today ’ s highly integrated systems , a fielded software defect in a single piece of equipment can cascade into multiple failures that can significantly impact the asset ’ s mission . With complex systems , today ’ s owners and crews experience even greater challenges during the control system ’ s operational lifetime . Software updates associated with maintenance processes too often lack sufficiently clear and detailed documentation to adequately support the decision to upgrade or not . One safeguard against maintenance-associated software errors is a thorough Software Management of Change ( SMoC ) process that requires the supplier to provide a detailed description of the purpose of the update , all interfaced register changes , a pre-installation test report , a post installation test plan , and a final test report . The integrity of control systems also can be compromised by cybersecurity breaches . The corruptivepotential of a breach can be experienced through a number of well-known threats , such as unprotected ports ( network and USB ), unauthorized use of USB memory sticks , out of date virus protection applications , and nonexistent or poorly executed SMoC processes , to name just a few . Over time , the risk to system integrity presented by corruption vectors having origins in Internet connectivity , inadequate cybersecurity protections , and weak management of change processes increases . The presentation outlines some solutions and recommended best practices addressing these challenges .
Please contact : Paul R . Walters PE pwalters @ eagle . org Office : + 1.281.877.1539 Mobile : + 1.832.331.1539