A few new dial-up modem security products were out on the Distributech exhibit floor. In general, we worry more about authentication, to prevent an attacker from gaining access, than encryption, to prevent an attack from eavesdropping or inserting data, into a dial-up connection.

What a surprise to see Thales e-Security at the show. I worked with this group back when they were known as Racal and dominated the banking cyber security market. The Datacryptor SA product is based on the AGA 12 standard for a bump-in-the-line product to protect dial-up, serial field comms. The initial version, due out later this year, will support Modbus and DNP3 and will cost ~$500. Our favorite feature has nothing to do with encryption. It is the support for strong, two-factor authentication for the maintenance port.

Bow Networks added support for RSA’s SecurID two-factor authentication to their remote IED management solution eLAN Anywhere. A remote user authenticates to the eLAN server using the password displayed in the SecurID token and a PIN. The eLAN server then provides either dial or network access to the substation.