A defense-in-depth security policy can minimize both malicious and unintentional mistakes that may cause downtime or impact safety. Today, Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, released KEPServerEX® V5.12—the latest edition of its flagship communications platform designed to help meet industry security requirements and increase interoperability with modern OPC UA standards.
"At Kepware, we're constantly adapting to address the evolving needs of our customers," said Tony Paine, President and CEO of Kepware Technologies. "Based on customer input, the ability to provide high levels of security and interoperability through modern standards such as OPC UA are of growing importance, so we have responded to these priorities in our latest KEPServerEX release."
With its new Security Policies Plug-In and updated User Manager settings, KEPServerEX V5.12 leverages user authentication in OPC UA to help ensure that only intended users receive access to the server runtime through trusted client applications. Administrators can provide broad access permissions at the group level or restrict read, write, or browse access for more granular control at the object level.
"While security is a major concern for any company reliant on automation, it is truly paramount for those in the Power industry, as the consequences of inadequate access controls can quickly escalate beyond just a business disruption," said Lars Ole Christoffersen of Denmark's leading energy company, DONG (Dansk Olie og Naturgas) Energy. "We are confident that with KEPServerEX V5.12's new Security Policies Plug-In, we will be able to streamline operations and increase safety by ensuring that the right people have access to the right information and controls."
"OPC UA standards represent a major step for interoperability and security in the Automation industry," according to Craig Resnick, Vice President of Consulting at ARC Advisory Group. "While adoption remains at an early stage, technology based on OPC UA standards, such as KEPServerEX V5.12, will empower more organizations to invest in secure industrial device communications solutions, ensuring that their plants and factories will be safer and more productive."
KEPServerEX V5.12 also includes two new Allen-Bradley Micro800 Serial and Ethernet drivers. Additional enhancements have been made to more than 20 of Kepware's drivers, including the DataLogger Plug-In, the Siemens TCP/IP Ethernet Driver, and the DNP Master Serial and Ethernet drivers.
For more information, please visit Kepware Technologies online or contact a representative at (207) 775
Air Max 90 NS GPX Mid
Progea is ofering two Basic Training Courses on Movicon for June on the 11th and 18th June held live on webinar from our offices in Switzerland. The courses will be held in the morning from 9am to 12 noon and repeated in an afternoon session from 2pm to 5pm. The course will be held by our technical staff and will focus on facilitating first-time Movicon project development. The objective is to train design engineers, who operate in the world of automation, by starting with the basic skills to reduce time needed to be operative by means of developing supervision projects with Movicon. Arguments on the agenda include ways to approach the Movicon work space, project structures, RealTime database tag management, Communication Drivers, graphical interface based on screen vectorial objects and symbols and alarm management. This course is designed for potential clients in all sectors, in particular system integrators. 
Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the manufacturing and infrastructure operations industries, has released SimSci Suite 2013, a DVD catalogue that provides a single source for all of its current SimSci-Esscor® design, operator training, simulation and optimization software. The DVD includes software updates that use common components to enhance the user experience.
National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced Chameleon for NI CompactDAQ, a software package developed by NI Gold Alliance Partner PVI Systemsand available on the LabVIEW Tools Network, to create turnkey systems for NI data acquisition hardware that are simple and intuitive to set up and operate. These scalable systems can span to a large number of channels, yet still be managed within a configuration-based environment without programming.