Emerson Improves DeltaV Perimeter Defense

Emerson has enhanced the perimeter security for its DeltaV distributed control system (DCS) with its new NextGen Smart Firewall. This purpose-built control system firewall is designed to provide easy-to-install and easy-to-maintain perimeter security for all industries. Key improvements provided by the NextGen Smart Firewall include more ruggedized construction, increased bandwidth and role-based access to provide more granular access control.

This new firewall features an HTML5 web-based user interface, easy-to-follow setup menus and pre-defined DeltaV application rules. These capabilities were added to help DeltaV administrators and control engineers with no security or IT expertise create secure connections for DeltaV applications.

Emerson notes the gigabit connections provided by the NextGen Smart Firewall support improved performance for applications that require higher bandwidth.

Other advanced features of the firewall include:

• Virtual private networks to increase flexibility and security for geographically dispersed networks.
• Network address translation to protect network IP schemes and conserve addresses.
• More granular user roles to give administrators full control, while allowing engineers to add or modify application rules and permitting auditors with read-only access to logs.