Technology has a huge impact on how the work an employee is responsible for and how they navigate their way to success. A lot of the way we used to do things and manage a company’s systems have drastically evolved just as rapidly as technology has. I am currently employed at Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD), a wastewater company where we are responsible for what people flush down their toilets. You may think it is as simple as going through some pipes to be dropped off in some random body of water, however it gets way more complex than that, and the implementation of SCADA amongst our company has helped change the way we can monitor our systems entirely.
Where is SCADA?
The SCADA systems throughout HRSD are used throughout our treatment plants, pump stations, and accessible remotely to authorized users to help monitor and control flow coming in from certain pump stations. A standard pump station requires a key to get into the building or station, once inside you will notice screens as seen throughout the provided article, that show loads of data that mean different things. For our systems we are typically setting low points and high points for our pumps to be able to provide the amount of RPMs needed to pump out what may be in there. The SCADA systems allows us operators such as myself to be notified which alarm is going off and where. This database can only be controlled so much remotely before a user may need to actually manually flip a certain switch, however to my understanding they are in the process of implementing something that could potentially change that.
Visual Data
The SCADA systems also provide users a visual representation of data in said station. This has changed how employees use to have to check pressure and flow manually which is this business can clearly get a bit messy. Although anyone can see the data’s output visually, not everyone can manipulate the systems data without authorized access or credentials. This ensures that no one can potentially make changes to the systems without other people knowing what might have been changed thanks to the SCADA database.
• Author links open overlay panelDarshana Upadhyay, et al. “SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) Systems: Vulnerability Assessment and Security Recommendations.” Computers & Security, Elsevier Advanced Technology, 13 Nov. 2019, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167404819302068.
• “Benefits That a SCADA System Brings to Your Organization.” DPS Telecom, 28 June 2024, www.dpstele.com/blog/top-7-benefits-that-a-scada-system-brings-to-your-organization.php.
• Author links open overlay panelSajid Nazir a b, et al. “Assessing and Augmenting SCADA Cyber Security: A Survey of Techniques.” Computers & Security, Elsevier Advanced Technology, 5 July 2017, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167404817301293.
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