Tofino Industrial Security Solution released

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Oct 30, 2007

MTL and Byres Security are pleased to announce the Tofino Industrial Security Solution has successfully completed Beta testing and is offered as a layered security solution for industrial systems

The Tofino Industrial Security Solution offers SCADA and process control companies a layered security solution for their industrial systems by deploying low-cost security appliances directly in front of each control device (or group devices) that needs protection.

These appliances provide protection directly in front of the critical edge device.

This allows a "defence-in-depth" strategy to be used, so even if a hacker or virus manages to get through the main corporate firewall, they will still be faced with an array of SCADA-focused security devices that need to be breached before any damage can be done to the control system itself.

Dr Graeme Philp, Chief Executive of MTL states, "It is easy to see how open networks benefit end users, EPCs and system vendors alike, being based on international standards and therefore providing the ideal platform for future refinement and development by multiple vendors.

Open systems need multi-layer protection that can be installed and commissioned without needing to be an expert in IT.

It needs to be compact, rugged and it needs to basically install and configure itself.

Tofino is a major advance in this direction".

Following extensive internal testing, Tofino was installed at a number of field installations at key industry sites in the hydrocarbon, food, and other industries.

The results confirm that unlike traditional IT firewall or encryption solutions, Tofino easily meets the environmental needs, staff capabilities and industry requirement for an Industrial Ethernet security solution.

Its patent pending zero configuration features make it so simple to use, that electricians and instrumentation technicians can install it without any specific training.

Yet at the same time, company security specialists can confidentially monitor the system from anywhere in the world, reacting to threats in a co-ordinated company-wide manner.

Best of all, Tofino is much more than a firewall, since its dynamically loadable security modules can also provide encryption, intrusion detection and control protocol-aware security solutions tailored to specific plant floor devices.

The Beta tests have proven that with Tofino, a true "defence-in-depth" security solution suitable for installation in the plant environment is now available.

Tofino provides the needed layers of protection to the plant environment communications networks by protecting the system by adding many more layers of security down to the field controller level of the network.

The success of the product meeting this target requirement is confirmed by one of the Beta test sites commenting; "Tofino exceeded our expectations during our pilot testing".

"We threw our best hacking and DoS ammunition at the protected PLC and Tofino blocked every attempt, while still allowing authorised controls communication to flow unimpeded.

Our operators never saw a difference.

Tofino can, and does, provide the necessary protection for our plant devices": this came from the Manager of Plant Systems at a major US Food Company.

Eric Byres, Security expert and CTO of Byres Security, notes: "For years the IT world has known that a big corporate firewall on its own is just not enough when it comes to security.

If it was, we wouldn't be loading all this firewall and anti-virus software into our PCs.

Tofino brings the strategy of critical edge protection to the control system, giving the most important devices in our plants (the PLC, DCS, HMI and so on) the same defence-in-depth security the IT department gives the receptionist's desktop.

In other words, Tofino is the personal firewall, IDS and VPN of the plant floor controller".

There are other Industrial firewall products on the market, but there is no product available like the Tofino; designed by control engineers, for control engineers so that they can focus on keeping a system reliable yet secure, meeting or exceeding all the available standards and regulations.