Secure Your System

A Plant SCADA system is protected by implementing a user-based security model. When planning a project, you need to consider who will be using the system and the areas they will need to access.

There are two ways you can manage user accounts:

• Integrated Windows security (recommended) — Windows user accounts are used to access Plant SCADA computers. The security measures specified for the local network domain will apply.

• Plant SCADA security — user accounts are created within the Plant SCADA project. They can be organized into groups.

In both cases, access to the Plant SCADA system is managed by assigning user accounts to "roles" defined within a project. Roles specify for a particular type of user:

• The areas they will be able to access.

• The privileges they will have.

Roles and Plant SCADA user accounts are configured using the Security activity.

Encryption

Encryption can be used to enable trusted communications for the runtime computers in a Plant SCADA system.

By default, encryption is enabled for Plant SCADA's runtime processes and CtAPI. For some components, such as a deployment server or an OPC UA server, encryption is a requirement.

A System Management Server is used to enable trusted communications across a distributed Plant SCADA system. Computers running Plant SCADA need to connect to the System Management Server to access the certificates required to facilitate secured communications.

To use encrypted communications for your runtime computers, you need to:

1. Setup a System Management Server.

2. Confirm that encryption is enabled on each computer.

3. Connect each computer to the System Management Server.

Note: To use encrypted communication, your Plant SCADA server processes need to run as a service.

See Also

Security

Roles