National Technical Systems to Host The Bit Bazaar Smart Grid Educational Series Seminar/Webinar

CALABASAS, Calif., Aug. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- National Technical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of testing and engineering services, announced today that it will host a Smart Grid Educational Series Seminar with a concurrent Webinar on August 13^th, 2012 at 1 p.m. Pacific Time at its Culver City, CA Advanced Technology facility. Keynote Speaker John Hayes of BlackRidge Technology will discuss the topic "Industrial Control Systems In The Electric Sector: How Secure Are We Today?"

The Webinar will be streamed over the Internet for attendees around the world.  The in-person Seminar scheduled from 12 p.m. – 3:30 pm Pacific Time will provide industry stakeholders in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area an opportunity to network with contemporaries and see a live demo of a few Smart Grid technologies at vendor tables before and after the Webinar.

The presentation by Hayes will cover BlackRidge's security solution which has been designed to provide innovative, proactive protection to network resources by preventing attackers from performing reconnaissance of high-value and mission-critical network assets, and by denying them the ability to communicate anonymously. Hayes is BlackRidge Technology's CTO and founder, and specializes in cyber security, networking, I/O interface design, storage architecture and communications protocols.

Hayes' presentation is part of the Smart Grid Educational Series Webinar that The Bit Bazaar LLC offers bimonthly as a free public service to bring world-class experts in the Smart Grid field to educate the industry on critical issues and create a forum for interaction to solve complex problems in this field. Dr. Erfan Ibrahim, Founder & CEO of The Bit Bazaar – A Marketplace for Digital Ideas, established this forum in January 2012.

"NTS is continuing to grow its business in the Smart Grid market," said NTS President and CEO William C. McGinnis. "Our ZigBee certification testing and test harnesses are just a small part of the testing we are performing to support manufacturers and utilities providing Smart Grid technologies to consumers, as well as testing of solar panels and electric vehicles. We look forward to learning more about BlackRidge's technology, as well as expanding our relationships with members of the Smart Grid community around the world."

NTS Chief Technology Officer Osman Sakr said, "NTS has supported manufacturers and utilities in the Smart Energy and Smart Grid markets over the past several years.  We are extending our commitment further by helping Dr. Ibrahim and Mr. Hayes to educate Smart Grid industry professionals in a critical area of cybersecurity. We look forward to the upcoming webinar and seminar, and the opportunity to provide a forum for further discussions among industry professionals."

The Bit Bazaar webinar distribution has grown to more than 1,600 people in 10 countries worldwide over the past seven months.  Webinar attendance has ranged between 45 – 145 people. Previous webinars have covered topics such as Distributed Energy Resources (DER), Smart Grid Cybersecurity, XMPP for the Smart Grid, RF Safety of Smart Meters and Smart Grid Network Management.  

About The Bit Bazaar LLC
The Bit Bazaar LLC is a full service IT and business consulting firm, offering services to clients in the High Tech, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Energy sectors. For additional information about The Bit Bazaar, contact Dr. Erfan Ibrahim at [email protected].

About BlackRidge Technology
Founded in 2008, BlackRidge Technology embarked on the mission to transform networking through the use of Identity Aware technologies. BlackRidge is a provider of innovative Identity based cyber security solutions to public sector, defense and enterprise customers.  BlackRidge is a privately funded company. For additional information about BlackRidge, visit www.blackridge.us.

About National Technical Systems
National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of testing and engineering services to the aerospace, defense, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full product life-cycle support, offering world class design engineering, compliance, testing, certification, quality registration and program management. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at www.nts.com or call 800-270-2516.

Forward-Looking Statements
The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties pertaining to customer orders, demand for services and products, development of markets for the companies' services and products and other risks identified in the companies' SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The companies undertake no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding National Technical Systems' business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.

SOURCE National Technical Systems, Inc.