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Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has expanded its cybersecurity capabilities with the opening of three “cyber ranges” to help industrial companies — including those in the oil and gas, chemicals, utilities and manufacturing industries — practice their response to cyberattacks across their most critical assets.
The cyber ranges are controlled, interactive and hyper-realistic environments for cybersecurity training and software development used to assess network and other technical vulnerabilities of industrial control systems (ICS). These systems are commonly used to automate processes in critical infrastructure industries such as utilities, petrochemicals, oil and gas, and industrial manufacturing.
Featuring live-fire, multi-vendor capabilities, the three cyber ranges are located in:
- Houston, Texas ‒ Housed within one of the company’s innovation hubs, this cyber range focuses on the oil and gas industry, from upstream exploration, midstream into downstream refining and retail.
- Washington, D.C. ‒ Focused on the utilities industry from electric transmission to distribution, this cyber range is in Accenture’s Cyber Fusion Center in Washington, D.C.
- Essen, Germany ‒ This cyber range, in one of the company’s Industry X.0 Innovation Centers, is dedicated to the utilities and chemicals industries focused on electric distribution networks and chemical plants.
“We tailor security solutions to our clients’ industries and help them build resilience across their entire value chains,” said Jim Guinn II, who leads Accenture’s cybersecurity business for the energy, utilities, chemicals and mining industries. “Our ICS cyber ranges are designed to help pressure-test and improve the security posture of organizations so they can innovate safely and grow their businesses with confidence.”
Accenture is also in the construction stage of its first ICS Cyber Fusion Center opening early next year to help clients better protect their industrial networks, including field level and plant assets. Located in Accenture’s Innovation Hub in the heart of Houston’s business district, the new ICS Cyber Fusion Center will bring together world-class threat intelligence and vulnerability assessment services leveraging a dedicated team of ICS and industry security analysts. The center will be part of Accenture’s global network of Cyber Fusion Centers, joining others in Washington, D.C.; Bangalore, India; Prague; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Tokyo.
“The energy industry has the largest installed base of industrial control systems around the world, and the cyber risk has never been greater,” said Luis Luque, ICS cybersecurity global lead at Accenture Security. “Securing and defending these large and complex industrial systems requires not only improving processes and tools, but also adopting cybersecurity practices for operational maintenance and resilience programs. With the expansion of our ICS cybersecurity capabilities, we can deliver the most comprehensive security solutions tailored across the ICS environment, delivered by people who understand the zero-loss time imperative our industry expects.”