Foxborough, Mass., Jan. 23– Industrial Defender and rugged communications networking solutions provider RuggedCom yesterday announced they will jointly develop, market and co-brand a comprehensive cyber security solution for critical infrastructure industries including he power, oil and gas, transportation, water and chemical sectors.
In particular, with North American electric utility customers facing mandatory NERC-CIP compliance by mid-2008, combined technology solutions from Industrial Defender and RuggedCom provide the benefit of delivering an integrated solution for compliance, since bulk electricity asset owners were previously forced to deploy single-purpose, non-integrated solutions from multiple vendors.
RuggedCom offers rugged communications networking infrastructure products for environments requiring hardened specifications including the electrical substation environment, as well as RuggedCom Gauntlet, a user authentication solution for the electric power market that provides secure access to critical cyber assets.
As part of this new strategic partnership and technology integration, RuggedCom will tap into Industrial Defender’s comprehensive Defense in Depth approach to cyber security, which includes network security professional services, cyber security technology and managed security services. In addition, Industrial Defender can now extend its process control/SCADA network cyber security monitoring and management capabilities into harsh network environments.
"Working with RuggedCom provides customers with a completely integrated and easier roadmap to NERC-CIP compliance for their critical cyber assets," said Brian M. Ahern, president and CEO of Industrial Defender. "Joining forces with the global leader in hardened network infrastructure products extends Industrial Defender’s Defense-in-Depth technology offering through the seamless integration, monitoring and management of RuggedCom devices within the Industrial Defender Security Event Management (SEM) console, while also enabling a managed security service offering for global RuggedCom products."
Marzio Pozzuoli, pesident and CEO of RuggedCom, said, "Mandatory NERC-CIP compliance deadlines are forcing electric power companies to ensure the most critical elements of their systems meet stringent security requirements on an abbreviated timeframe. Our partnership with Industrial Defender enables us to deliver our technology with an increased level of cyber security, providing customers with a more comprehensive and complete solution."
