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Yokogawa picks Tofino for industrial firewall

04/09/2008

The Tofino Industrial Security Solution has been selected by Yokogawa Electric Corporation as the first industrial firewall, giving Yokogawa’s Centum CS 3000 Production Control System and Stardom network-based control system customers access to this revolutionary new security technology.

Jointly developed and marketed by MTL Instruments (a part of Cooper Crouse-Hinds) and Byres Security, the Tofino Industrial Security Solution is designed specifically for industrial control operations in critical industries such as oil and gas, manufacturing, utilities and power generation.

Tofinos are small, industrially-hardened security appliances that are deployed throughout a refinery or industrial plant and centrally managed for a coordinated security approach. Each Tofino security appliance is placed in front of one or more mission-critical control devices, such as the Stardom industrial controller as well as the sub-system interfaces of CS 3000 which run the open industrial protocols, and then is tuned to meet the security requirements of those systems.

The approval of the Tofino Industrial Security Solution will give Yokogawa’s SCADA and process control equipment customers the much needed ability to deploy defence-in-depth security in their industrial systems. As Yokogawa’s “Security Standard of System Product” guidelines note:

“Threats of the security are under daily evolution. What is more, the threats of the security happen not only in the external networks, like business networks, but also on process control network, which is an internal network. We have to get armed with the defense-in-depth strategy… by defense-in-depth strategy, we mean the protection measures composed of more than one security control to protect the property. By the use of this kind of multi-layer measures, another layer will protect the property even if one layer is destroyed, so the property is protected more firmly.”

The Tofino Industrial Security Solution provides exactly that multi-layer security. The approval came after months of extensive testing and analysis of the Tofino Industrial Security Solution by the industrial automation and control giant. “The Yokogawa testing process is extremely rigorous,” noted Byres Security Development Manager Scott Howard, “I was very impressed with the competence and level of focus displayed by the Yokogawa team – nothing went unnoticed or untested.”

Eric Byres, security expert and CTO of Byres Security, notes: “If companies want to meet the new ANSI/ISA-99 security standards, it is critical they divide up their plant operations into security zones and then protect each zone in the most appropriate manner. It is no longer good security practice OR cost-effective just to lump everything together behind one big firewall and pray that you are secure.”

The Tofino Industrial Security Solution is unique in the industry, designed by control engineers for control engineers, so that they can focus on keeping a system reliable yet secure, thus meeting or exceeding all the available standards and regulations.

P.T. Lim, Yokogawa global account manager for MTL Instruments, added: "Companies looking to achieve professional levels of cybersecurity and operational excellence for their industrial control networks will find the Tofino Industrial Security Solution a valuable asset and a sensible investment for an uncertain future."

The Tofino Industrial Security Solution will be demonstrated from April 7-10, 2008,at the 2008 Yokogawa Technology Fair & User Conference, at the Hilton Americas in Houston.