Industrial Defender  

Press Release

Verano Announces Inustrial Defender™ Guard, First Perimeter Protection Appliance for Industrial Operations
Guard Provides Control System Security and Reliability Ideal for Power Generation, Electrical, Energy Distribution, Water Treatment, Waste Handling and Transportation Companies

MANSFIELD, Mass., June 21, 2004

Verano, Inc., the leading provider of security solutions for mission-critical industrial operations, today announced Industrial Defender™ Guard, the first perimeter protection appliance designed to provide control systems and networks with complete protection against cyberattacks by integrating an array of security features, including virus protection and intrusion prevention. Targeted for use by mission-critical industries, Guard is the second component of the Industrial Defender solution, launched in June 2003. With the integrated Guard option, Industrial Defender is the only security management system designed to monitor and protect control infrastructure from a wide variety of external and internal hazards, ensuring a secure, highly reliable and productive plant environment.

In today's current climate of widespread cybersecurity threats - including Trojans, viruses, worms, Denial of Service attacks and even cyberterrorism - companies operating mission-critical infrastructure face the imminent challenge of adequately securing their control systems and networks to mitigate risks and avoid devastating consequences like critical data loss, interruption of revenue generation, blackouts and endangering public safety. Traditional enterprise solutions are not equipped to secure plant-specific control systems, lacking the ability to interact with the equipment that runs on industrial control networks.

To address this need, Verano has built Industrial Defender on Red Hat, hardened with SELinux extensions developed by the National Security Agency (NSA). The Guard intrusion prevention appliance is fully integrated with Industrial Defender and viewable from a single operator interface. For the first time, control system and network security is put in the hands of the control engineer, rather than the IT department.

Industrial Defender Guard also includes a patent-pending Dynamic Lock-Down feature, tied to security threat levels such as those determined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During heightened threat levels, Industrial Defender Guard provides a simple means for rapid lockdown of the plant environment based on pre-configured security rules, which dynamically modify control environment access to protect mission-critical systems.

"There is a great need for solutions that provide the ability for customers to lock down the plant when cybersecurity threat levels are high," said Pete Lindstrom, research director, Spire Security. "Verano's Industrial Defender Guard can help mitigate business risk, maximize availability of critical infrastructure and support compliance with state and federal cybersecurity mandates, while preserving control system investments."

Industrial Defender Guard is designed to be added to existing systems at the connection point to the external network, providing the capability of blocking unauthorized users and malicious content. An ASIC-based architecture allows in-line intrusion prevention, network virus scanning, content filtering and VPN gateway functionality to be delivered at wire speed.

"Industrial Defender provides reliable visibility into potential security and availability concerns in the plant environment," said Al Cooley, director of security, Verano. "The addition of perimeter defense functionality with the integrated Guard appliance is very valuable to our customers, enabling fortification of critical assets from a wide variety of incoming threats, without the need to deploy and manage multiple solutions."

Industrial Defender Guard Features: