Integrated security in a process plant having a process control system and a safety system

A security system for use in a process plant having a process control system that performs product manufacturing related control related functions using one or more process control field devices and a safety system that performs safety related control functions using one or more safety field devices, the security system comprising:

• a computer having a processor and a memory;
• a process controller communicatively coupled to the computer and adapted to perform process control system functionality using the one or more process control field devices;
• a safety system controller communicatively coupled to the computer and adapted to perform safety system functionality using the one or more safety system field devices;
• a security database adapted to store access privileges related to both the process control system functionality and the safety system functionality;
• one or more user applications stored in the memory of the computer and adapted to be executed on the processor to communicate process control system messages to or from the process controller and to communicate safety system messages to or from the safety system controller using a common communication format, wherein each message has a data field indicating whether the message is associated with a process control system entity or a safety system entity;
• and
• an integrated security application stored on the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to distinguish whether an operation to be implemented by one of the one or more user applications is related to a process control system entity or to a safety system entity and to use the security database to enable a user of the one of the one or more user applications to perform the operation based on access privileges for the user stored in the security database.

A security system for use in a process plant having a process control system with a process controller adapted to perform product manufacturing related control functionality using one or more process control field devices, a safety system having a safety system controller adapted to perform safety related control functionality using one or more safety system field devices, and a host computer having a processor communicatively coupled to the process controller and to the safety system controller and one or more user applications executed on the processor to communicate process control system messages to or from the process controller and to communicate safety system messages to or from the safety controller, the security system comprising:

• a memory;
• a security database adapted to store access privileges related to both the process control system and the safety system;
• and
• a security application stored on the memory and adapted to be executed on the processor to enable the one or more user applications to access the process control system and the safety system via the process control system messages and the safety system messages based the access privileges stored in the security database.

A method of performing security procedures in a process plant having a process control system with a process controller adapted to perform product manufacturing control functionality using one or more process control field devices and a safety system having a safety system controller adapted to perform safety related functionality using one or more safety system field devices, the method comprising:

• storing access privileges related to both the process control system and the safety system in a security database;
• detecting whether an action to be taken with respect to the process plant is an action related to the process control system or to the safety system;
• determining an appropriate set of access privileges from the security database based on whether the action to be taken is related to the process control system or to the safety system;
• and
• preventing or allowing the action to be taken based on the appropriate set of access privileges.