Opengear Console Servers To Support NERC CIP Standards

Opengear has added IPSec High Availability VPN gateway software to the IM4200 advanced console server to allow electric utilities to meet the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) critical infrastructure protection (CIP) standards.

The IM4200 console server is an electric utility console server enabling electric utilities to manage their power generation plants, control systems and transmission infrastructure, the company said.

Opengear's new IPSec High Availability VPN gateway software console server enables users to connect to managed infrastructure within IPSec VPN network. In the case of a network outage, the console server will automatically reconnect the VPN using modem or broadband failover.

Bob Waldie, founder of Opengear, said: "Our console server lines have always offered a rich array of security features including Radius and TACACS authentication and authorization, SSL encryption and extensive data and access logging.

"With this release, we offer our utility partners the unique combination of out of band access and failover with highly secure IPSec connections. Electric utilities can now manage their critical infrastructure over the Internet so they comply with the NERC CIP standard."

Opengear designs and manufactures console server, power management and kvm over ip solutions for remote access and control of infrastructure.