Category Archives: Findings from the field

ABB qualifies additional integration with Industrial Defender ASM; see it at ABB APW or online

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“The integration and qualification of Industrial Defender’s ASM Manage as part of System 800xA combines industry-leading technologies so that customers can better monitor, manage, and protect their critical control system operations.”   - Jonas Brannvall, ABB Global Group Product Manager Just in time to show off Industrial Defender ASM integration at ABB Automation Power World 2013, ABB’s System 800xA product team has qualified the integration of their System 800xA with our flagship, A << More >>

What a year! The market to Monitor, Manage, and Protect industrial automation systems emerges.

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In 2012 Industrial Defender witnessed a major market shift as global critical infrastructure operators responded to the series of issues including escalating cybersecurity attacks, increasing ICS complexity, proliferation of intelligent devices, and imminent regulatory evolution.  The market has acknowledged the need for advanced technologies to automate the management of their heterogeneous control systems and has begun large-scale projects to enhance their security, compliance and change mana << More >>

Cyber attackers move to target critical infrastructure system suppliers

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This week’s news identifies a cyber-attack perpetrated against a key supplier of automation system technologies used in multiple critical infrastructure sectors.  This latest news underscores the sophistication and the targeted nature of the attacks on critical infrastructure, as well as suppliers. It is representative of the determination and malicious intent of those intending to undermine global critical infrastructure. With DHS ICS CERT investigating 400% more incidents last year, it’s << More >>

Complying with NERC CIP v4 and Preparing for v5

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NERC has moved quickly to address shortcomings and lack of clarity in previous versions of CIP standards. Recently, FERC approved the latest version, NERC CIP v4 Standards, which attempts to provide additional compliance standards for organizations. However, from a requirement standpoint, there were no major changes between v3 and v4, and organizations have been able to focus on properly fulfilling all the requirement standards. In a contributed article with HS Today, Jacob Kitchel, senior manag << More >>

A Review of the Electric Subsector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (ES-C2M2)

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What is the ES-C2M2? On May 31, 2012, the Electric Subsector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model (ES-C2M2) was released by the Department of Energy (DOE) in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a White House supported initiative. The advisory group which contributed to the initiative included representatives from industry associations, utilities, government, and over 40 subject matter experts (SMEs). The objectives of the model are to: Strengthen cybersecurity capab << More >>

What to do about Flame malware

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The biggest cyber security related news story this week has been about the Flame/Wiper malware. The event has gotten high profile coverage by several media outlets (included below). So far, there have been no strong indicators that the Flame virus is tied to anything ICS or SCADA related. There has been plenty of speculation in the media coverage that Flame does target ICS environments based on its apparent sophistication and the countries in which infected machines were detected. After reading << More >>

Safety vs. Security

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Most assume that safety and security go together and are basically synonymous concepts. However, over the years experts in the ICS industry have continuously emphasized the physical safety in organizations and put less focus on the security aspect. IT professionals in these environments are now being confronted with real consequences due to a lack of security measures. Stuxnet is a perfect example of what happens when security precautions are ignored. Operators, IT managers and directors must no << More >>

ICS Perspectives

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Today, Industrial Defender is relaunching its blog. This forum, formerly known as “Findings from the Field” has been expanded and renamed “ICS Perspectives”. Why? Well, it may seem trivial, but this decision directly aligns with what I have seen and heard while engaging with customers and partners globally. “Findings from the Field” was intended to be a resource focused specifically on security for industrial control systems. This made good sense when we launched – security was << More >>