Cyber‐Physical Vulnerabilities of Wireless Sensor Networks in the Oil and Gas Industry: A Literature Review

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) drive modern oil and gas industry operations through their ability to monitor environments as well as inspect equipment in real‐time and track leaks. WSNs provide their users with considerable cost benefits and operational flexibility together with excellent scalability capabilities. WSNs' wireless setup combined with their operation in distant hostile territories creates fundamental exposure to multiple cybersecurity dangers and physical threats in the environment. This review investigates all critical security risks facing WSN networks as they operate within the petroleum industry. The paper examines primary strike methods while discussing both malicious software insertions and destructive infrastructure tampering activities. The analysis connects each threat to its potential impact on data integrity, system availability, and operational safety. This analysis shows how these weaknesses can harm important oil and gas facilities by leading to issues like leaks, wrong incident reports, shutdowns, and bad decisions due to incorrect sensor data. The review examines advanced cybersecurity measures including lightweight encryption protocols, intrusion detection systems, and compliance with ISA/IEC 62443 and NIST SP 800‐82 standards. Among identified threats, data integrity attacks through spoofing and packet injection, and denial‐of‐service attacks pose the highest priority risks to operational safety, potentially causing delayed emergency responses and disabled safety monitoring systems. The paper also addresses practical implementation challenges including resource constraints of battery‐powered nodes and legacy system integration barriers.