Accenture launches US and German surviving cyberattack training facilities

Accenture is to launch three cyberattack training facilities as part of its drive to help industrial organizations ready their defenses for any online assaults on their critical assets. The facilities, all of which feature live-fire, multi-vendor resources, are to be located in Texas (with a focus on the oil and gas industry), Washington DC (as a means super-serving the utilities industry), and the west German city of Essen (in support of its local utilities and chemicals industries). According to the Dublin-headquartered multinational professional services provider, these new facilities will offer controlled, interactive, hyper-realistic environments for cybersecurity training and for trialing software designed to protect networks and industrial control systems (ICS).

Typically, such systems are deployed as part of the process of automating aspects of critical infrastructure in certain high-risk sectors, notably utilities, petrochemicals, oil / gas processing and industrial manufacturing. Outlining the rationale behind the introduction of these new facilities, Jim Guinn II, global managing director of Accenture Security, said they were primarily intended to help pressure-test and enhance the security of client organizations, allowing them to innovate safely and expand their businesses with all due confidence.