Major accident prevention and management of information systems security in technology-based work processes

The oil and gas industry in Norway has taken into use and is developing ICT-based work processes to improve efficiency and safety. Protection of information resources and technology; ensuring safe and secure processing of information; and ensuring reliable and safe flow of information is essential for both production and protection in such ICT-intensive organizations. Information systems security (IS) thus matters for major accident prevention. In the ICT-based work processes in the oil and gas industry new challenges for IS security occur related to: increased need for availability and integrity of information; merge of process safety systems and ICT-systems; manual use of information resources; and flow of information between distributed actors. These challenges imply new requirements for IS management: More focus on availability and integrity as protection principles; resilience-based approaches as a supplement to formal management approaches; validation of information flows; and integration of loss prevention approaches.