Elster Teams With Industrial Defender to Deliver Increased Security Infrastructure for the Smart Grid

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Elster (NYSE: ELT) and Industrial Defender today announced a technology partnership for cyber security and compliance with Elster's EnergyAxis® advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) Smart Grid solution. This announcement was made in San Diego at the DistribuTECH Conference and Exhibition, a leading annual Smart Grid and transmission-and-distribution event.

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Industrial Defender's capabilities add to the robust security already embedded in EnergyAxis 7.5. Enhancements include 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 integration comprises the entire EnergyAxis solution. It also includes meters, networking devices, meter data management (MDM) servers, distribution automation (DA) servers, workstations and other devices. While EnergyAxis 7.5 already has secure technologies, including individual key management, the added Industrial Defender capabilities now support comprehensive situational awareness and security process automation across an entire AMI and DA infrastructure.

The partnership integrates security technologies into EnergyAxis, and creates a focused sales and service solution offering from Elster. This combination offers utilities a complete and accountable single source for reliable and compliant intelligent metering and distribution automation requirements.

"Cyber security is complex and multifaceted. 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," said David Hart, Ph.D., senior vice president of systems and products at Elster 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.

"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," said Brian Ahern, CEO of Industrial Defender. "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."

For more information about this integrated solution, visit Elster's booth 901 at DistribuTECH or go to http://www.elster.com/distributech.

About Elster

Elster (NYSE: ELT) is one of the world's largest electricity, gas and water measurement and control providers. Its offerings include distribution monitoring and control, advanced smart metering, demand response, networking and software solutions, and numerous related communications and services – key components for enabling consumer choice, operational efficiency and conservation. Its products and solutions are widely used by utilities in the traditional and emerging Smart Grid markets.  

Elster has one of the most extensive installed revenue measurement bases in the world, with more than 200 million metering modules deployed over the course of the last 10 years. It sells its products and services in more than 130 countries across electricity, gas, water and multi-utility applications for residential, commercial and industrial, and transmission and distribution applications.

For more information about Elster, please visit www.elster.com.

About Industrial Defender, Inc.

Industrial Defender, the global leader in Automation System Security Management, provides a suite of integrated products and services dedicated to assuring the availability, reliability and security of critical infrastructure. Primary areas of focus include Defense-in-Depth™ security technology integration and Compliance Sustainability via security process automation. In business more than 18 years, and with more than 8 years of dedicated cyber security experience, Industrial Defender has completed more than 125 process control/SCADA cyber security assessments, more than 10,000 global technology deployments securing critical infrastructure systems, more than 3,000 mission critical SCADA deployments and provides managed security services for 170 process control plants in 21 countries. Privately held, the company is headquartered in Foxborough, Massachusetts, USA.

For more information, please visit www.industrialdefender.com.

SOURCE Elster