Following its acquisition of Industrial Defender this year, Lockheed Martin [LMT] Monday launched the next generation of the company’s cybersecurity and compliance platform for critical infrastructure.
Version 6.0 of Automation Systems Manager (ASM v6.0) combines security, compliance, operations and change management into one tool that delivers analysis and reporting. Generation plants, emergency medical services, substations, refineries and water treatment or chemical plants are among the places where ASM v6.0 can be used. The platform is primarily aimed at OT (operational transformation) operators, who may be responsible for IT, compliance or general plant management.
“We worked with each of those different users to carefully develop the solution to meet their needs,” Venkat Pothamsetty, Lockheed Martin Industrial Defender vice president, wrote in a blog post.
The goal behind ASM v6.0–which will become available this summer–was “breaking down data silos and automating the tedious manual tasks security professionals face on a daily basis,” Brian Ahern, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Industrial Defender, said in a statement.
One of the system’s users said the single-view platform resulted in operational gains for security and compliance with federal mandates.
“[ASM v6.0] has led to an 80 percent reduction in the time it takes to identify, analyze and report on these activities,” said Scott Smith, senior analyst at Commonwealth Edison–Illinois’ largest electricity provider.
Other features the new version include: FleetView, which allows the system to categorize changes by location, time or assets, such as workstations or firewalls; work automation suite that allows managers to quickly approve changes made to documentation; substation integration that allows ASM to work with 90 percent of available equipment; and automated reporting for industry standards including NERC CIP, NIST 800-82 and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) 08-09.
Lockheed Martin acquired Industrial Defender in March. The details of the acquisition, including Industrial Defender’s sales and financial adviser, were not made public. A privately held company in Foxborough, Mass., Industrial Defender released its first security solution in 2003. Since then, it has provided its technologies to more than 400 companies across 25 countries. (Defense Daily, March 12)