Belden Provides Means of Securing Critical Manufacturing Systems Against Published Vulnerabilities

Neckartenzlingen, Germany - March 19, 2013 - Belden Inc., a global leader in signal transmission solutions for mission-critical applications, announces an update to the EAGLE Tofino Industrial Security Solution to include "Security Profiles". Part of the EAGLE Tofino version 1.7 product release, this new feature addresses the post-Stuxnet trend of a dramatic escalation in the number of public disclosures of industrial control system vulnerabilities.

Tofino Security Profiles provide a simple way for automation system vendors to create and securely distribute rule and protocol definitions to address newly disclosed vulnerabilities. Control system customers benefit from a single, easy to deploy package of tailored rules that can be installed without impacting operations. The result is that manufacturing facilities can defend themselves against new threats quickly and effectively.

The discovery of the Stuxnet malware in 2010 alerted “the security researcher” community to how easy it is to cause damage to industrial systems. Designed with a focus on reliability and safety, rather than security, devices such as PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and DCS (distributed control systems) are often easy to exploit. In the year 2011 more Industrial Control System (ICS) vulnerabilities were made public (many with exploit code available on the Internet), than in the entire previous decade. Even more troubling, the publicly disclosed vulnerabilities are only a fraction of the conservatively estimated 100,000 or more vulnerabilities that exist in the field today.

Recently Schneider Electric utilized the EAGLE Tofino Security Profile feature to defend against publicly announced vulnerabilities in its Modicon PLC product line. By utilizing the EAGLE Tofino’s capabilities, they provided a method of defense for their customers that was immediately effective and that did not require any changes to automation equipment or network configurations.

Other improvements to the EAGLE Tofino product line in version 1.7 include:

Improved Event Logging – Installations with the EAGLE Tofino Event Logger are able to send security event information to a central syslog server from EAGLE Tofino Security Appliances that are IP address-free. This helps meets industry standards by continuously recording security events and provides the extra security of undiscoverable security appliances.

New VLAN Support – EAGLE Tofino Security Appliances and the EAGLE Tofino CMP now transparently support VLAN tagged network traffic, preventing hackers from using double-tag attacks to “jump” between VLANs.

Enhanced OPC Support – the EAGLE Tofino OPC Enforcer now supports non-standard OPC products as well as OPC over intermittent networks.

Support for More Protocols and Products – The EAGLE Tofino now support > 90 industrial and IT protocols and > 60 control products.

“We have consistently heard from both vendors and customers how difficult it is to apply security updates to industrial networks with continuous production and many legacy devices” said Eric Byres, CTO and vice president of engineering at Tofino Security. “The EAGLE Tofino 1.7 product line solves a major difficulty, which is making it simple and safe to implement security updates into operating facilities”.

Availability

The EAGLE Tofino 1.7 product line is available now. It includes:

• EAGLE Tofino Security Appliance (4 SKUs)

• EAGLE Tofino Starter Pack

• EAGLE Tofino Firewall LSM

• EAGLE Tofino Secure Asset Management LSM

• EAGLE Tofino Modbus TCP Enforcer LSM

• EAGLE Tofino VPN Server LSM

• EAGLE Tofino VPN Client LSM

• EAGLE Tofino VPN PC Client LSM

• EAGLE Tofino Event Logger LSM

• EAGLE Tofino OPC Enforcer LSM

• EAGLE Tofino EtherNet/IP Enforcer LSM

• EAGLE Tofino Central Management Platform

The EAGLE Tofino Industrial Solution extends Belden’s end to end communication product offerings which include secure industrial cabling, routers, firewalls and Hirschmann branded switches.

Reader enquiries

Belden
P.O. Box 9
5900 AA VENLO
Netherlands

+31 77 387 8555

www.belden.com

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