Northrop Grumman has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enable the expansion of cyber security protections for critical infrastructure.

Northrop Grumman is now starting the security accreditation process which is required before approval to operate as a commercial services provider under the DHS Enhanced Cybersecurity Services (ECS) program, says the company.

ECS is an information-sharing program to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators in enhancing cybersecurity protections of their information systems from unauthorized access, exploitation and data exfiltration. Under ECS, DHS will share classified and unclassified cyber threat ‘indicators’ with designated commercial service providers, and they will utilize the threat indicators to provide approved cybersecurity services to authorized critical infrastructure entities.

Northrop Grumman joined forces with Areva in July 2012 to work in the area of cyber security protection for the nuclear industry.

[Image courtesy: David Brodbeck/Wikipedia]