Industrial Defender Receives Patent For What???
Mini-rant warning. I received a press release from Industrial Defender announcing, Industrial Defender Awarded Patent For Cyber Risk Mitigation Technology. However no where in this press release does it explain, even in broad terms, what was patented. Pure and poor marketing - - unless it works.
Somehow we are supposed to believe because some unspecified patent was received it is better. The President/CEO said, “This patent represents a major endorsement for the Industrial Defender risk mitigation technology suite and underscores our long-term dedication to developing the best defense against cyber security threats.”
I looked at the patent on patentmonkey.com (click on the claims for the detail).
Here is the abstract:
Described are techniques used in monitoring the performance, security and health of a system used in an industrial application. Agents included in the industrial network report data to an appliance or server. The appliance stores the data and determines when an alarm condition has occurred. Notifications are sent upon detecting an alarm condition. The alarm thresholds may be user defined. A threat thermostat controller determines a threat level used to control the connectivity of a network used in the industrial application.
I’m always amazed at what receives a patent. Agents reporting events based on thresholds to an appliance or server is patentable? This has not been done for decades in IT Security? On a basic level isn’t this a lot of what happens in any control system that implements report by exception or unsolicited response?
Industrial Defender (formerly Verano) is a pioneer in the SCADA security product space and deserves credit. They are one of the few companies developing agents for control system devices and applications, and this is an interesting and promising approach; especially if the vendor cooperates for a close device/agent integration. Next time give us at least a little pertinent info in the press release.
Author: Dale Peterson
Posted: August 15th, 2007 under SCADA Vendor, Security Vendor.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from Landon Lewis
Time: August 15, 2007, 10:16 am
I’m always amazed at the vast number of (e)-patents these days that get away without creating something unique. I’m no patent expert, but one of the first rules before approaching a patent is making sure each it is unique.
To me it sounds like describing a agent or client/server model with alarms based on conditions received from the agent or client is not unique. However after reading through a few sections of the patent there are many areas that are most likely unique in one manner or another, but I’m guessing some open source projects or SEM vendors actually are now violating this patent.
After going down an avenue and pursuing an (e)-patent in the past, I’ve started disagreeing with the ideas of them even existing. There are many groups that have formed like the FFII (http://www.ffii.org/) and another in Europe against software/technology patents.
Comment from Ralph Langner
Time: August 16, 2007, 4:11 am
I always wanted a threat thermostat. Where can I buy one?
Comment from stacy
Time: August 16, 2007, 9:20 am
“This patent represents a major endorsement for the Industrial Defender risk mitigation technology suite”
When did the patent office start endorsing products?
Comment from Jake Brodsky
Time: August 19, 2007, 12:36 am
I’m concerned that by patenting such things, Industrial Defender (or whoever may buy their firm) may end up using this patent as a legal cudgel in case they can’t sell enough stuff. A vague patent is always good for lawsuit extortion.
My impression of the company has just gone down a notch.
Comment from Ralph Langner
Time: August 19, 2007, 7:14 am
Not to worry, Jake. I have done a little research that revealed that the competition is already working on what they call Next Generation Threat Controller, or “Threat Terminator ™”. After all, what’s better than controlling threats within a given range? Exactly: Getting rid of the threats all the way! At least that was common opinion shared by asset owners that I interviewed briefly (podcast to follow). Only one person disagreed. This young, hot shot control room guy told me: “Well, you know, sometimes when we get bored during night shift, we turn up the threat level for three or four degrees for some excitement and action”. Anyway, I think ID’s threat thermostat is going to address this quite limited niche market, at best.
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