More Security from CCS in New Company

CCS-Inc. of Christiansburg has launched a new cyber security subsidiary, FoxGuard Solutions.FoxGuard provides the products and services needed to protect and maintain critical control systems in power generation and other critical infrastructure facilities.

Critical infrastructure is defined by the Department of Homeland Security as “the assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”

Power plants, water treatment facilities, and chemical operations are just a few examples of America’s critical infrastructure at risk of a cyber attack.

“These facilities, like most businesses and organizations, use computers to operate. However, due to intrusion risk, most do not connect to the Internet and are therefore unable to receive important software updates,” explains Steve Miko, VP of software. “FoxGuard offers its customers the tools needed to keep computers and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems protected and up to date without ever having to plug in to outside sources.”

FoxGuard provides these updates or “patches” via offline media at regular intervals on a subscription basis. In addition, FoxGuard offers the hardware necessary for these facilities to keep operations up and running.

“FoxGuard is a result of the increasingly urgent needs of several of our customers in the power industry to protect and update control systems that are not connected to the Internet,” comments CCS-Inc.’s CEO and President Marty Muscatello. “We continually look for ways to solve more of our customers’ technology challenges.”

FoxGuard Solutions helps power industry customers comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) guidelines through its services and documentation.