Remote IT-based operations of offshore oil and gas installations are increasing in the North Sea. The motivation for remote operation is increased income, cost reductions and more efficient support. The technology used to support operations is changing from proprietary closed systems to standardized IT systems built on PCs and MS Windows connected to both internal networks and the Internet. In addition the operations and management of the oil and gas fields are increasingly being performed by a network of companies that functions as a virtual organization. The network organizations and the increased number of vulnerabilities create the need for improved information security. Our hypothesis is that an important contribution to improved information security is improved safety and security culture and improved communication during operations and incident handling. Safety and security culture should be explicitly focused and actions should be taken to improve the culture to an ideal learning culture. We have developed a method called CheckIT consisting of a questionnaire and a process to improve security and safety culture based on group discussions. The questionnaire consists of questions and exclusive response alternatives related to denial based culture, rule based culture and the ideal learning culture, to enable the participants to explore their culture and identify areas to be improved. The user community has been satisfied with the tool so far, and CheckIT is being used in international companies cross borders. CheckIT has been made available at www.ceckit.sintef.no.
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