With this software, industrial operators can tackle these challenges without needing in-depth cybersecurity knowledge. Siemens
According to a recent market analysis by ABI Research, the industrial cybersecurity market is expected to reach $21.6 billion by 2028, driven by increasing threats to operational technology (OT) systems and the need for more comprehensive vulnerability management. The application of generative AI in industrial settings also is predicted to grow exponentially, with companies seeking to improve operational efficiency and human-machine collaboration.
Production facilities are increasingly the targets of cyberattacks, meaning industrial companies need to identify and close all potential vulnerabilities in their systems.
To address the need to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities on the shop floor as quickly as possible, Siemens has launched a new cybersecurity software as a service (SaaS).
The cloud-based SINEC Security Guard software from Siemens offers automated vulnerability mapping and security management optimized for industrial operators in OT environments. The software automatically assigns known cybersecurity vulnerabilities to the production assets of industrial companies. This allows industrial operators and automation experts who don’t have dedicated cybersecurity expertise to identify cybersecurity risks among their OT assets on the shop floor and receive a risk-based threat analysis.
The software then recommends and prioritizes mitigation measures.
Defined mitigation measures also can be planned and tracked by the tool’s integrated task management. The software is offered as cybersecurity SaaS and was made available for purchase in July on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace and on the Siemens Digital Exchange.
“With SINEC Security Guard, customers can focus their resources on the most urgent and relevant vulnerabilities, while having full risk transparency in their factory. It is unique because it takes the specific situation of the customer’s operational environment into consideration while providing a single pane of glass for security-relevant information in the OT area,” said Dirk Didascalou, head of foundational technologies at Siemens. “When developing the SINEC Security Guard, we drew on our extensive experience with cybersecurity in our own factories.”
Today, industrial operators are tasked with continuously safeguarding their production assets on the shop floor. They need to analyze vendor security advisories, manually match them to the asset inventory of their factory, and prioritize mitigation measures.
Because this process can be time-consuming and error-prone using the existing tools, factories are running the risk of missing critical vulnerabilities in their assets or producing false positives. This can lead to incorrectly configured plant components and inadequately allocated resources. With this software, industrial operators can tackle these challenges without needing in-depth cybersecurity knowledge.
For a comprehensive view of information technology (IT) and OT cybersecurity, this software also offers a connection to Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft’s security information and event management (SIEM) system for proactive threat detection, investigation, and response.
The most common forms of protection are antivirus software, secure passwords, and file encryption. sankai/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Once connected, the software sends alerts for security events including attacks to Sentinel, enabling a security analyst to incorporate these insights in investigations and responses with Microsoft Sentinel-powered security operations centers.
“As information technology and operational technology systems continue to converge, a holistic cybersecurity architecture is key to protecting IT and OT capabilities alike. By combining our domain knowledge, Siemens and Microsoft make it easier for industrial operators to efficiently detect and address cybersecurity threats at scale,” said Ulrich Homann, corporate vice-president, Cloud + AI at Microsoft.
This cybersecurity software also supports the manual upload of existing asset information for asset inventory. The developer recommends, however, that industrial operators use the Industrial Asset Hub, the Siemens cloud-based asset management system, to enable continuous automated asset inventory management.
Functionalities also include signature-based network intrusion and attack detection via the software’s sensor, an industrial edge app, which gives users live information about their industrial network. This app is available at the Siemens Industrial Edge Marketplace.
The initial release only supports Siemens OT assets, but third-party device support is planned in the future.
The purchase of cybersecurity software, services, apps, and training are among the most popular IT investments at Canadian businesses recently, according to research by NordLayer, a network security provider.
The company’s survey revealed that more than 50 per cent of IT spending was set aside for cybersecurity efforts.
“IT and cybersecurity budgeting are two different segments of financing. IT covers overall technology investments, including hardware, software, personnel, and cybersecurity. Because cybersecurity is just a fraction of the grand scheme, it explains why budgets can be tight and sometimes even non-existent,” said Carlos Salas, a cybersecurity expert and head of platform engineering at NordLayer.
Additionally, the same research shows that the most prominent cyberattacks in Canada are phishing (42 per cent), malware (33 per cent), and data breaches (27 per cent). It also showed that Canadian companies combine different measures to achieve security.
The most common forms of protection are antivirus software, secure passwords, and file encryption.
Business virtual private networks (VPNs) maintain their popularity in securing organization network connections, with 65 per cent of surveyed companies using them. Cyber insurance, which was used at 43 per cent of surveyed companies, is a relatively new option making its way to business cybersecurity, although its focus is on covering the consequences of an incident rather than preventing it.
Small businesses are more likely to experience identity theft (12 per cent) and data breaches (11 per cent) than insider threats (2 per cent) or social engineering attacks (5 per cent). Also, small businesses experience the lowest number of cyberattacks—42 per cent of respondents did not face them.
Medium enterprises tend to suffer from malware (43 per cent), social engineering (30 per cent), and insider threats (29 per cent). Compared with the other two categories, medium-sized businesses were exposed most to data breaches (34 per cent) and distributed denial of service (DDos)/denial of service (DoS) attacks (27 per cent).
Large companies experienced the most cyberattacks—as much as 92 per cent of those surveyed. Organizations of such size experience malware (43 per cent) slightly more often than phishing (42 per cent). They experience the same amount of data breaches and identity theft (27 per cent) attacks, while ransomware is the least expected (19 per cent).
Cybersecurity keeps evolving, but so do cyber threats, emphasizing the need for strengthened business protection measures. Choosing comprehensive cybersecurity tools helps to achieve the flexibility needed to adapt to dynamic technological and risk change.
Salas also shared a key tip on securing organizations.
“No business is too small to experience a cyberattack. My recommendation for organizations of all sizes is to have a strong cybersecurity strategy. It should have the mindset that every employee is responsible for cybersecurity, not only the IT department,” he said.
NordLayer, nordlayer.com
Siemens Corp., www.siemens.com
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