GE Energy starts HMI maintenance program to protect against cyber security threats

To address the increasing risk of cyber security threats to power plants and other industrial facilities, GE Energy has launched a human-machine interface (HMI) maintenance program to keep critical control system components safe from viruses and security breaches. The company debuted the program at the 15th annual joint ISA POWID/EPRI controls and instrumentation conference on June 6-8, 2005, in Nashville, TN.

GE Energy’s HMI maintenance program was inspired by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), which have outlined stringent guidelines that require power plants to adopt virus and security precautions. These guidelines are scheduled to take effect later this year and in 2006. Consequently, GE Energy’s HMI maintenance program delivers virus shield software and targeted security updates designed to keep the HMI and historian components of control systems functioning properly and in full compliance with NERC 1300 and ENISA 460 cyber security regulations. The program also provides updates to the GE-proprietary portions of the system, keeping it up-to-date with current GE Energy standards.

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