- Critical OT & Industry 4.0
- Custom SCADA
Case Study: OPC UA Secure Replication for Power Grid Operations
Electricity Grid Operator in India
Real-time SCADA data exposure from OT to IT systems
High-risk OPC UA channel identified as a potential attack vector
Legacy OT environment with known vulnerabilities
Strict requirement for zero-impact, fully isolated data flows
Need / Problem / Context
Secure SCADA Data Exposure with Safe IT Visibility
A national electricity grid operator in India needed to expose real-time SCADA data from its operational environment to IT systems to support monitoring, analytics, and digital transformation initiatives. The architecture relied on OPC UA to publish data from OT to enterprise platforms, creating a critical dependency between production systems and IT.
Following security assessments and threat intelligence, this channel was identified as a potential entry point for Advanced Threat Actors seeking to pivot from IT to OT. This risk was reinforced by legacy OT systems with known vulnerabilities, making any bidirectional communication unacceptable.
At the same time, the operator could not compromise on data availability, performance, or operational continuity. Strict isolation was therefore required, while still enabling reliable, real-time SCADA data flows from OT to IT — without introducing any additional attack surface into the production environment.
Solution Deployed
To enable secure and real-time replication of SCADA data while preserving strict separation between OT and IT environments, Cyberium deployed a resilient unidirectional architecture with an OPC UA Replicator Agent. The solution ensures continuous data flow to IT systems while maintaining operational stability and eliminating any inbound connectivity risk.
1x OWA 3U pack @ 1 Gbps
One security gateways were deployed to sustain continuous high-volume scada replication while preserving strict separation between OT and IT environments.
OPC UA Replicator Agent
A protocol-aware replication component that mirrors OPC UA interactions across the diode by deploying a client/server pair on each side — mimicking the original OT server for IT consumers while preserving data structure, context, and continuity.
Standard (SFTP) Connector
A reliable file-based transfer mechanism ensuring secure, high-integrity data exchange across the unidirectional link, with built-in robustness for continuous and lossless delivery.
How It Works — Architecture Overview
Outcomes & benefits
Safely unlocked OT data for enterprise use, without ever compromising the integrity or security of critical SCADA operations.
Securely enabled OT-to-IT data flows without introducing any attack surface on SCADA systems
Eliminated any possibility of IT-to-OT pivot through OPC UA communications
Enabled digital transformation use cases with real-time, reliable data access
Maintained zero attack surface on OT and SCADA despite critical legacy vulnerabilities
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We secure the Critical
— connecting what should isolated.
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