An Advanced, Single Housing, All-In-One Gas Detection System

SensAlarm Plus is a complete, turn-key gas detection system preassembled in one housing. The system comes standard with strobe lights, horns, high-visibility four-digit LED display, and LCD display/interface. At the heart of the SensAlarm Plus is an advanced Intelligent Sensor platform with non-volatile memory for all critical application variables and sensor data. A non-intrusive user interface enables easy operator customization and a quick review of sensor life parameters, TWA (Time Weighted Average) alarms, calibration data, and other information with date and time recording.

The SensAlarm Plus sensor head is universal in that it accepts all Sensidyne Plus sensors. Monitoring in high, low, or adjacent locations is simplified by remote mounting the sensor head using a four-conductor cable. With a sensor connected, the automatic uploading of variables, alarm values, and sensor information dramatically simplifies installation and maintenance. Transportable calibration allows sensor calibration at the installation location or in a workshop, then hot-swapping the sensor in the field.

SensAlarm Plus is the ideal gas monitoring solution for many applications. Most laboratories, gas cylinder storage facilities, industrial work areas where gases are present, control room protection or other applications where users benefit from a packaged gas detection system are common areas that need SensAlarm Plus.

DOWNLOAD THE SENSALARM PLUS DATA SHEET FROM THIS IVES EQUIPMENT WEB PAGE

For more information about Sensidyne Fixed Gas Detection products, contact Ives Equipment. Call them at 877-768-1600 or visit their website at https://ivesequipment.com.

Happy Labor Day from Ives Equipment!

 

The MIcroMod 353 RetroPAK - An Alternative for Siemens 353 and Moore 352 Users

 

The 353 RetroPAK is the best choice on the market to update your controllers with the least disruption to your plant operation.

The Siemens 353 and Moore 352 controllers have been extremely popular, but they are no longer manufactured or supported. MicroMod has a cost-effective migration solution offering up-to-date technology that will be available for years to come. We understand the dilemmas faced by companies that need to ahead and be able to support their control systems without abandoning their control philosophy or incurring large up-front installation costs.

The 353 RetroPAK provides the same process control functions as the Moore 352 and Siemens 353 controllers. Factory templates (in the Siemens 353 FCO style) that can be loaded from the front keypad along with a function block library in Windows configuration software mean less time spent learning new programs and re-engineering your system. The RetroPAK suits the same panel cutout, has the same simple I / O add-on, and offers dual communication networks.

DOWNLOAD THE 353 RETROPAK BROCHURE HERE

For more information about the MicroMod 353 RetroPAK, contact Ives Equipment. Call them at (877) 768-1600 or visit their website at https://ivesequipment.com.

Happy 4th of July from Ives Equipment

Lead-Free Valves from ASCO and Ives Equipment

Lead is extremely toxic. Tight US safety regulations affect manufacturers of products such as drinking water fountains, reverse osmosis systems, coffee machines. and commercial kitchen equipment. A lead-free system cannot contain soldering flux with greater than 0.2% lead content, or more than a weighted average of 0.25% lead in the wetted surfaces of pipes, pipe fittings, plumbing fittings, and fixtures. Under the law, lead free is a cumulative concept.  In response, Ives Equipment and ASCO have coordinated to provide a range of valve choices that meet the new regulations, are NSF certified, and come in the industry’s broadest range of characteristics in terms of pipe size, pressure or temperature ratings, and flow coefficients.

For more information visit https://ivesequipment.com/leadfree.

Coronavirus Update

In response to the 3-19-20 order from the Governor of Pennsylvania mandating todays Closure of all "non-life Sustaining" businesses – I wanted to communicate that the Ives Equipment Corporation is continuing Operations.

Our King of Prussia Facility is not adversely affected by the announcement. We remain open to support our customers.

For the safety of our employees, most are working from their homes, however we are maintaining limited staff in our facility to continue operations. We are committed to social distancing and disinfecting our office daily. Telephone, Email and Business systems are cloud based enabling remote support. We continue to respond timely and are receiving, assembling and shipping products daily. We have millions of dollars of local inventory in King of Prussia and most of our suppliers are currently running as business-as-normal.
We appreciate your support through these challenging times.

Respectfully,
Terry Ives
Ives Equipment Corp.

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Face New Ransomware Concern

Dragos is a company that provides industrial asset identification, threat detection, and response to help organizations stay ahead of adversaries. According to Dragos intelligence and threat reports, it appears that a segment of code called Snake or EKANS, first recognized in December, 2019, has been designed as ransomware to target Windows systems used in industrial control systems (ICS). 

Ransomware is malicious software that will lock up data on a computer’s drive, then travel across the network and encrypt other data. The saboteurs will then demand payment in exchange for releasing the data. Whereas industrial control system machines are high-value targets (healthcare is the other high-value target) EKANS is unusual in that the malicious code uses targeted intelligence for control systems to first encrypt the root data (files are encrypted and renamed with random 5-character extension) and then ruin the software processes and hold the data hostage.

EKANS targeted companies and are sent a ransom note with the instruction to pay the ransom in cryptocurrency. There is an email address provided for contact/replies.

Manufacturing plants, power grids, and industrial concerns (such as oil refineries) are all targets of this malicious malware.

Another feature of the EKANS ransomware is it is programed to terminate sixty-four (64) various processes on computers – most of which are ICS specific.  This suggests the possibility that the EKANS may also share features similar to the Megacortex ransomware, which first appeared in early 2019.  Megacortex relies on a manual method of deployment rather than self propagation ransomware deployment.

It is still unknown whether the EKANS ransomware originated from state-sponsored hackers or via real cybercriminals trying to profit from industrial control system owners. It appears that it may be the latter, based on the most recent analysis of the nature of the ransomware – analysis by Dragos researchers.

It is wise to raise awareness with among everyone who touches your systems and it would be prudent to have someone within your organization (or a consultant) tasked with keeping data security protections current.  In addition, it is crucial to have ICS organizations rethink their cybersecurity leadership philosophy. In many organizations, the evangelists for cybersecurity are not equipped to exert influence in the company.  Cybersecurity is still treated as a back-office job, but it needs to be treated as priority by the organizational leaders.

Dragos adversary hunters recommend keeping ICS systems segmented from the rest of the network. In this way, if just one Window machine is infected, the virus can’t mobilize to the systems that control the infrastructure. In addition, standard practices such as backups, stored offline, and including the last known good configuration data will somewhat reduce the liability of slow recovery. Guardrails such as improved access and mechanisms for authentication will also help to reduce the risk of these increasingly troubling attacks on ICS systems.

More detailed information can be accessed here:
https://dragos.com/blog/industry-news/ekans-ransomware-and-ics-operations.

Article courtesy of:
Ives Equipment
www.ivesequipment.com
(877) 768-1600