Fortinet UTM provides SCADA network management for energy industry

Fortinet Unified Threat Management (UTM) Systems has been chosen by a $2 billion retail company to provide firewall and intrusion prevention to more than 800 locations throughout the world. Security threats to utility and energy infrastructures are very real. Fortinet technology is also being used in the energy industry in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks for industrial process management, infrastructure management and facility management. A compromised SCADA system could result in severe physical damage, disruption and financial loss to a company.

Due to its critical nature, patching of SCADA systems is not always possible in the timeframe needed to prevent exploitation. The next best solution is to use a defense-in-depth strategy by applying application layer security at both the host remote terminal unit (RTU) and the network level, said a spokesperson for Fortinet. What is required is a consolidated security system which offers tightly integrated multiple detection mechanisms including application aware firewalls; anti-virus detection; application control; web filtering; VPNs; automated updates to anti-virus and IPS signature databases; known SCADA exploits already in anti-virus and IPS databases; network anomaly and DoS prevention; and database protection.

Management of SCADA networks is critical due to the sensitivity of the systems they control. Changes and network downtime should be avoided. In order to minimize deployment risk while still providing security, Fortinet includes a transparent deployment methodology that can be done without any change to the existing layer 3 network structures.

Because Fortinet devices are installed on the wire, they can act as both intrusion detection and active prevention systems; in other words, they are able to intercept malicious traffic before it impacts the network.

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