Industrial Cybersecurity Industry Leader, Eric Byres, Joins Verve Industrial Protection as Senior Advisor

ST. LOUIS and CHICAGO, Jan. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Verve Industrial Protection, formerly known as RKNeal, is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Byres P.Eng, ISA Fellow, as Senior Advisor.  Mr. Byres will work with the leadership of the company on product and strategic matters in the arena of industrial cybersecurity and protection. 

Mr. Byres has a tremendous track record as a leader in ICS cybersecurity.  As the inventor of the Tofino Security technology, Eric and his partner Joann guided the product through its evolution from academic research project and startup to successful acquisition by Belden Inc. Today it is probably the most widely deployed ICS-specific firewall in the world. 

Eric is also known for his leadership in international standards and research for ICS/SCADA security. As the founder of the BCIT Critical Infrastructure Security Centre, he shaped it into one of North America's leading academic facilities in ICS security, culminating in a SANS Institute Security Leadership Award in 2006. He was the founding chair of the ISA SP-99 Security Technologies Working Group, and the Canadian representative for the IEC TC65/WG10 standards effort. 

"We are thrilled that Eric has agreed to join us as we push forward in our vision to help secure industrial control systems.  Eric's willingness to commit his valuable time to our company will help us expand our leading industrial cybersecurity solutions," said John Livingston, CEO of Verve Industrial Protection.  

Mr. Byres will focus helping expand the capabilities of Verve Industrial's flagship product, Verve Security Center (VSC).  VSC is a vendor agnostic platform that consolidates antivirus, application whitelisting, change & configuration management, security information & event management (SIEM), patch management, vulnerability assessments, intrusion detection, backup management, and compliance evidence management.   VSC unifies threat intelligence into a single console simplifying the complexity of ICS security and compliance.

"I am excited to help the Verve team expand on the success that they have to date," said Mr. Byres. "The industrial world really needs a solution like Verve Security Center.  It is the only fully integrated security platform that I have seen that was built by ICS engineers for ICS engineers.  It was designed with the security challenges of the plant floor in mind. Verve's the foundation that will allow companies to start creating an active defense that truly "closes the loop" on ICS security."

About Verve Industrial Protection:  Verve has been in the controls engineering business for 25 years. Verve Industrial Protection ("VIP") encompasses three integrated software and service offerings: 1) Design-4-Defense industrial controls engineering & design, 2) Verve Security Center software platform, and 3) Managed Asset Protection Services.  Together, these solutions help customers build true defense in depth and cover the critical areas of compliance required by regulators.    

For more information, email [email protected], visit www.verveindustrial.com or contact Rick Kaun at [email protected] or 615-476-1801.

SOURCE Verve Industrial Protection