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Tofino gains Mu Security Certification

10/03/2007

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 2 – Mu Security, a pioneer in the security analyzer market, today announced that the new Tofino Security Appliance from Measurement Technology Ltd. (MTL) and Byres Security, Inc. has achieved Foundation-level Mu Security Industrial Control (MUSIC) Certification.

The Tofino appliance expands the concept of a conventional firewall with centrally manageable and dynamically Loadable Security Modules (LSM’s) to provide encryption, intrusion detection and control and protocol-aware security solutions tailored to specific plant-floor situations.

The Mu-4000 Security Analyzer appliance was proactively used during Tofino research and development activities to automate its ongoing security and robustness testing.  MUSIC certification expedites this ongoing policy of integrating safety testing throughout the product deployment lifecycle.  “Traditional firewalls are too complex for most control professionals to configure correctly; and this problem is compounded by the location of the control devices themselves,” said Eric Byres, CTO and co-founder of Byres Security. “Use of the Mu-4000 and its associated MUSIC Foundation Certification ensures our varied industrial and manufacturing customer base has the benefit of robust analysis from the most advanced robustness and security testing platform available. By certifying the new Tofino system, industrial controllers installed in industrial plants or in remote locations are benefiting from proactive analysis that would never be conducted by in-house security staff.”

MUSIC Foundation and Advanced certifications both ensure critical infrastructure and process control-focused organizations verify a diverse range of network equipment and application protocols to meet industry-defined best practices for safety, reliability and security. MUSIC Certification and product security and robustness benchmarking using the Mu-4000 appliance minimizes oil, gas, chemical, paper, electrical and other process control product safety issues and minimizes costly downtime due to implementation flaws in commercial off-the-shelf industrial control systems. The MUSIC program also provides a migration path to open industrial control systems security specifications currently under development by Government and Industry groups including ISA Security Compliance Institute (ISCI) and ISA SP99.

“The Tofino security products are an exciting new development and an important part of MTL’s open solutions product portfolio,” said Ian Verhappen, MTL director of industrial networks.  “With the increased use of Ethernet in the industrial environment, the Mu Security MUSIC certification is important to both MTL and its customers as an independent verification of MTL’s commitment to high quality and service for which MTL is known around the world.”

As an existing Mu-4000 customer, Byres Security used its Mu-4000 security analyzer appliance during development of its Tofino Industrial Security Solutions. Byres Security and MTL also tested the Tofino Industrial Security product in situ by applying the Mu-4000’s MUSIC Foundation Protocol Test Suite: ARP, DHCP, IEEE 802.1p/Q, IP, TCP, TFTP and UDP. Test results were then analyzed and subsequently certified by Mu Security to ensure the product under analysis met or exceeded MUSIC’s multi-faceted safety and security stress test. By safely responding to the Mu-4000’s negative testing suite, the Tofino Industrial Security Solution achieved the MUSIC Foundation level of certification.

“Industry acceptance of the Mu-4000 appliance and its MUSIC certification capabilities quickly helped MTL and Byres Security deliver a more robust and secure Tofino solution,” said Adam Stein, vice president of marketing at Mu Security. “Leveraging the Mu-4000 system during development ensures Tofino customers have an innovative, easy to use ‘out of the box’ solution that addresses both compliance and the latest revisions of evolving industry standards.”