Yokogawa Electric Corporation and McAfee have entered into a partnership designed to address digital threats to industrial control systems. More specifically, the companies are looking to fix gaps that exist between different IT systems, across proprietary solutions and expanded communication channels (e.g. IP, wireless, and mobile), and those affecting common operating systems and applications.
The surge in wireless and mobile technologies has increased the vulnerabilities to process control systems, the companies say. Organizations tasked with running critical infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines, chemical plants, power stations, and water treatment facilities must look at holistic security systems across two disparate, yet interconnected zones, enterprise IT and industrial control systems.
A key aspect of this partnership is focused on addressing the fact that industrial process control systems typically have a three to five times longer lifecycle than typical commercial systems. With cyber threats constantly changing, Yokogawa’s partnership with McAfee is a significant move toward embracing a control system lifecycle approach to industrial cyber security for the continuous process industries.
