Government and Industry Work Together to Increase Cyber Security

ARCwire -- To establish a forum that enables companies that are often direct competitors to work together with the government to help protect the world's critical infrastructures, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Control Systems Security Program is facilitating monthly teleconferences with international control system vendors and equipment manufactures to discuss ways to increase cyber security in the systems that operate critical infrastructures. This group of industrial automation, control system, and SCADA vendors, along with the National Cyber Security Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have formed the Control Systems Cyber Security Vendors Forum.

The purpose of this forum is to facilitate collaboration between government and vendors and to provide vendors an open forum to discuss common issues that affect control system security. The forum gives each vendor the opportunity to gain knowledge that can provide another avenue of information flow and awareness to industry. In the past, these vendors have worked together with the automation industry, national laboratories, and government agencies to find solutions to security issues. Within this forum for the first time, control system vendors are meeting regularly to jointly look at security issues.

The Control Systems Cyber Security Vendors Forum provides an opportunity to keep the vendor community informed of the National Cyber Security Division's programs, as well as the products and tools being developed. It also provides the opportunity to develop relationships of trust and cooperation between the vendor community and the government.

The Control Systems Cyber Security Vendors Forum has been holding monthly conference calls since the fall of 2005. Participants in the forum currently include ABB, AREVA, Emerson's Process Systems and Solutions division, General Electric, Honeywell, Invensys, LiveData, Open Systems International, OSIsoft, Rockwell Automation, Rosemount, Schneider Electric, SEL, Siemens, SISCO, Stratus Technologies, Telvent, Wonderware, and Yokogawa.

Government participants include the Department of Homeland Security, Idaho National Laboratory, and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

The Control Systems Cyber Security Vendors Forum is open to all industrial automation, control system, and SCADA vendors. To join the forum, please email the agency [email protected].