Industrial Defender has decided to integrate its capabilities with Elster's EnergyAxis advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) Smart Grid solution. Both Industrial Defender and Elster announced their technology partnership at the DistribuTECH Conference and Exhibition, a leading annual Smart Grid and transmission-and-distribution event.

With the integration, EnergyAxis 7.5 will now have enhanced features such as advanced security intrusion detection and prevention at the end-point, server, perimeter and network levels, and high-availability centralized applications for monitoring, analysis, records management and compliance reporting.

The entire EnergyAxis solution, including meters, networking devices, meter data management (MDM) servers, distribution automation (DA) servers, workstations and other devices, will be integrated. EnergyAxis 7.5 will now be able to support comprehensive situational awareness and security process automation across an entire AMI and DA infrastructure.

"Cyber security is complex and multifaceted,” said David Hart, Ph.D., senior vice president of systems and products at Elster Solutions, in a statement. “By building individual key management and other security features into EnergyAxis 7.5, and integrating the enhanced applications offered by Industrial Defender, Elster continues to lead the way in creating secure, reliable infrastructure and proven Smart Grid solutions.”

"With Industrial Defender, we have found a partner that brings an extremely broad armament of security tools together on an integrated, utility-centric and utility-friendly basis," Hart added.

Echoed Brian Ahern, CEO of Industrial Defender, “The level of understanding and concern regarding threats to critical infrastructure and intelligent utility systems has increased among utility planners, suppliers, standards groups and regulators. By stepping up to create an integrated solution that incorporates comprehensive security and compliance capabilities, Elster is helping utilities get past the complexity and challenges of technology integration and move forward to take advantage of new business opportunities presented by the Smart Grid."

Industrial Defender is the global leader in Automation System Security Management, providing a suite of integrated products and services dedicated to assuring the availability, reliability and security of critical infrastructure. The company recently introduced its Host Intrusion (News - Alert) Prevention System (HIPS), an application whitelisting-based security solution that prevents malware attacks and non-trusted software modifications on control system servers and end-point devices.

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Rahul Arora is a TMCnet contributor. He has worked as an editor and freelance writer for several reputed organizations in India. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin