SANS Institute presents Invensys with 2006 Process Control Security Leadership award; Group recognizes Invensys practices for facilitating user security procedures and protecting process infrastructure owners' critical assets

Business Wire, April 28, 2006

FOXBORO, Mass. -- At its recent Security Summit, the SANS Institute presented Invensys Process Systems the 2006 Process Control Security Leadership Award. The award recognizes organizations that are difference-makers in cyber-security for critical enterprise infrastructures.

The SANS citation declared that Invensys has demonstrated that vendors can take much of the pain, cost, and uncertainty out of securing process and SCADA systems. The award identified some Invensys practices, including rigorous pre-testing of operating system updates and software security patches, and additional enhancements such as providing anti-virus within its core distributed control system (DCS) product, that make security better, easier and less expensive for asset owners. These factors, according to SANS, can make the difference between asset owners "betting their system reliability" on security issues, and being able to operate with confidence that security measures have been built in to their control systems.

According to Ernest Rakaczky, program director of process control network security at Invensys Process Systems, vendors need to work closely with enterprise and process asset owners to secure the infrastructure. "We as vendors are controlling major plants," he said. "That becomes a lifetime arrangement. This means that our security procedures and practices are intertwined with the business operations of our customers."

About SANS Institute

The Systems Administration, Audit, Network, Security Institute (SANS) is the most trusted and largest source for information security training and certification in the world. More than 54,000 SANS alumni in 43 countries are responsible for all aspects of information security in military and civilian government agencies, in industry and in academia. Established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization, SANS Institute programs now reach more than 165,000 security professionals, auditors, system administrators, network administrators, chief information security officers, and CIOs. For more information visit www.sans.org.

About Invensys

Invensys (www.invensys.com) is the world leader in industrial asset performance management. In addition to its rapidly expanding Global Solutions and Performance Management services groups, Invensys' automation businesses includes industry-leading brands such as Foxboro, Triconex, SimSci-Esscor, Wonderware, and Avantis, whose products are installed in more than 100,000 plants across the world.