Itron Announces Partnership with Industrial Defender

LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. — January 26, 2009 — Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) announced today its partnership with Industrial Defender, the global leader in Cyber Risk Protection™. Industrial Defender will offer security event management (SEM) for Itron's industry leading advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system, OpenWay. Under terms of the agreement, Industrial Defender SEM technology will be used to manage, maintain and report on aggregated data from OpenWay CENTRON® meters.

The security architecture inherent to OpenWay, combined with Industrial Defender's ID300B SEM platform, is designed to meet the security needs for true two-way AMI and Smart Grid networks. As the first company to offer a completely integrated Defense-in-Depth™ cyber security solution designed to protect the industrial control system and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) environment in a flexible and cost effective platform, Industrial Defender enables Itron to support large bulk electricity providers with a secure control system data repository.

"Advanced metering infrastructure has the potential to significantly transform key aspects of the utility business. As a cornerstone of an Intelligent Grid, AMI also has the potential of making the grid more vulnerable to cyber attacks," said Zarko Sumic, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "Consequently, a common understanding of security implications and common cyber security framework must be established across diverse organizations during an Intelligent Grid effort."

"Itron is dedicated to providing the most robust security available to protect our utility customers and their end users," said Russ Vanos, vice president of marketing for Itron. "Industrial Defender's solution provides a complete security event management capability specific to AMI, further enhancing our energy management and measurement technologies as we work toward development of the Smart Grid."

"As a leading technology provider to global energy and water companies, Itron is empowering bulk electricity providers to more effectively monitor, control, and report on security and performance information," said Brian M. Ahern, president and CEO, Industrial Defender. "By leveraging Industrial Defender's control system and SCADA expertise, Itron is now able to focus on enabling the Smart Grid, providing operational efficiencies, and allowing end-customer participation in energy management and conservation efforts."