McAfee and Intel offer protection to the world's national grids

McAfee and its parent Intel have announced a solution to protect the world's energy utilities from cyber attack.

The companies have developed a blueprint for a comprehensive solution of multiple products that will create layers of security.

Also developed is a virtual "reference implementation" that allows users to witness the response to an unsuccessful cyber attack and the impact of a successful attack on an improperly configured system.

The companies claimed that protecting utility infrastructure is challenging due to network diversity, data overload, complex endpoint management and a lack of tools with the right security context. They also claimed that many of the power grids' ageing assets predate the internet and are particularly vulnerable to attack and unable to identify or report malicious activity up the network chain, with substations particularly at risk.

Eric Knapp, critical infrastructure expert at McAfee, said: “To adequately secure critical systems against cyber attacks, the right products and technologies must be integrated into the entire infrastructure, from the enterprise, to the SCADA and control systems, and even to the automated device networks, without impacting reliability or interfering with operations.

“McAfee, together with Intel, has combined commercially available chipset capabilities and cyber security products into the perfect recipe for substation security, providing advanced protection while removing operational complexity and improving reliability through remote manageability.”

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com