Horizon Controls Group Partners With Verve Industrial

New Agreement Improves Operational Technology Security Posture for Pharmaceutical Clients Wrestling With Expanding Threat Landscape

CHICAGO, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Horizon Controls Group, a global digital process automation solutions and consultancy company, today announced a formal agreement with Verve Industrial, a leader in operational technology and industrial control systems (OT/ICS) cyber security technology and consulting solutions. This partnership allows both companies to expand collaboratively into new areas of highly sophisticated service and technology delivery engagements with manufacturing and research organizations in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and other life sciences.

The increased publicity and attention to the unprecedented achievements of the pharmaceutical industry during the global pandemic have significantly increased the potential cyber-related threats to this critical infrastructure. While energy and other utilities such as water treatment have historically been targets of advanced persistent threats (APTs) from highly resourced, nation-state, or terrorist-backed organizations, the value of the pharmaceutical sector is increasingly apparent and, in many cases, lags the security posture that has developed in these other industries.

Verve Industrial’s OT/ICS cyber security products and support services were selected by Horizon Controls Group as a powerful, targeted, and holistic solution to manage the sprawling ecosystem of myriad automation applications employed at any given pharmaceutical facility.

“Horizon Controls Group provides consultation, design, execution, and support for the full project life cycle of automation process control systems (PCS), building automation systems (BAS), manufacturing execution systems (MES), and process historians, using industry standards and best practices,” said Youssef El-Bahtimy, Automation Information & Systems Manager at Horizon Controls Group. “Our team integrates data integrity, resiliency, manageability, and security principles into every project, not as an afterthought, bolt-on, or cost adder, but in a proactive quality by design (QbD) manner.”

El-Bahtimy continued: “We believe this is the new standard for a modern systems integrator, and a key differentiator to becoming more than just a service provider – being the trusted adviser that our clients require. We see the Verve Security Center (VSC) and the expertise of Verve Industrial’s team as an invaluable and versatile way to solve the challenges posed by the unique security, situational awareness, and manageability environment of the OT space.”

“We are quite excited to join forces with Horizon Controls Group,” said Rick Kaun, VP of Solutions at Verve Industrial. “Their ‘trusted adviser’ status within their client base combined with their deep OT systems control abilities are a perfect match for the power and insight provided by our industry-leading VSC platform.”

About Horizon Controls Group
Horizon Controls Group is a full-service digital process automation company offering solutions including engineering design, systems integration, cyber security, and customized training. With corporate headquarters in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, its European subsidiary is based in Cork, Ireland. Further information is available at www.horizon-controls.com.

About Verve Industrial
Verve Industrial Protection has ensured reliable and secure industrial control systems for 25 years. Its principal offering, the Verve Security Center, is a unique, vendor-agnostic OT endpoint management platform that provides IT-OT asset inventory, vulnerability management, and the ability to remediate threats and vulnerabilities from its orchestration platform. Verve Industrial's Design-4-Defense professional services support clients in ensuring their OT environments are designed and operated in a secure manner. To learn more about Verve Industrial, please visit us at www.verveindustrial.com.

Contact:
Claire Mutty
CHEN PR for Verve Industrial
cmutty@chenpr.com
781.672.3113