One of the most obvious changes in process manufacturing in the last decade has been a move toward more connected, integrated operations. A key component of this change, in fact, has been a recent trend by operations teams to accommodate more cloud and internet connectivity—a shift that has been at the heart of the boundless automation initiative. And one of the most important elements of that initiative is finding ways to make connectivity and integration secure from the ground up.
No longer can industrial organizations hope to stay under the radar of cyber-attackers. Security through obscurity is not an option anymore, as evidenced by a recent series of high-profile attacks on industrial operations across the globe. Today, cybersecure operations are a critical element of eliminating downtime, increasing safety, and preserving reputation.
Better together
Emerson has been a leader in cybersecure operational technology (OT) for decades, but the reality is that cybersecurity is not a monolith. Threats change constantly, and ensuring systems are secure across their lifecycle requires a wide array of technologies and expertise. To help identify and implement the most effective cybersecurity technologies, automation providers create global agreements with cybersecurity experts to further enhance their capabilities.
As Emerson continues to integrate the many domains of operations, its next generation DeltaV™ automation system will move data from the field to the edge and into the cloud for peak optimization across the enterprise. To help ensure that data is always secure, Emerson has expanded its global agreement with Dragos, and has established a new agreement with Nozomi Networks to empower customers with new threat monitoring solutions. These agreements will help Emerson deliver the industry’s best cybersecurity assessment capabilities while simultaneously enhancing threat and anomaly detection and actionable intelligence to help users quickly see and respond to cyber-threats before they impact process controls.
Some of the key benefits of enabling threat monitoring solutions for DeltaV systems include:
- Improved threat detection and response targeting industrial control systems
- Improved security monitoring of industrial control system assets
- Improved tracking and mitigation of vulnerabilities
- Fast, efficient, and effective threat detection, response, and mitigation
Ready, all the time
From organizations providing critical infrastructure that keeps the world running, to life sciences facilities developing and delivering life-saving treatments, to specialty chemical organizations creating feedstocks for the world’s most essential items, no organization can afford the chaos created by a successful cyber-attack. However, in today’s environment of tight budgets and personnel shortages, few can afford expansive IT departments either. Expanded cybersecurity partnerships help Emerson bring intuitive, out-of-the box solutions to industrial organizations to help them deliver the security they need without the implementation and maintenance overhead they might not be able to provide. And more importantly, as threats change—as they do every day in the cybersecurity field—the well-supported solutions borne of these expanded agreements change with them, helping ensure the best protection across the lifecycle of an organization’s equipment.
To learn more about the expanded agreement between Emerson and Dragos, as well as the new agreement between Emerson and Nozomi Networks, you can read the press releases on the Dragos and Nozomi Networks pages. You can also learn more about how the DeltaV distributed control system has been built from the ground up with cybersecurity in mind by visiting the DeltaV Cybersecurity page on Emerson.com.
