Cisco and Sentryo work together to help secure factory networks

Manufacturers, utilities, and oil & gas companies are using data and applications to improve business operations through smart manufacturing initiatives like Industrie 4.0.  To accomplish these benefits these companies recognize the need to converge their enterprise network and their factory networks with industrial Ethernet to gain a 360-degree view of their operations across a single network infrastructure. They also gain real-time network diagnostics and troubleshooting.

This translates to less downtime, higher productivity, and the agility needed to respond to rapidly changing customer and market needs.

However, this connection of factory equipment that may have never been connected outside the factory opens up a new risk: it presents an expanded attack surface for hackers to gain access to their network. This vulnerability can give attackers access to critical intellectual property, or affect production integrity, and even safety.

Enter Sentryo.  Sentryo develops and provides cybersecurity and situation awareness solutions to industrial networks and the Industrial Internet of Things, or Industrie 4.0. Its solutions enable operations teams to help prevent and detect cyberattacks.  Sentryo, together with industry leading security vendor Cisco, recognize the challenges facing industrial customers:

◈ Aging control systems which may not have been designed with security in mind

◈ Operations teams who are experts in automation and process, but may lack information technology experience

◈ Lack of centralized network management tools and limited visibility into their industrial network operation

◈ The need to move decision making closer to factory data to improve agility and reduce unnecessary data moves

With these challenges in mind, Sentryo created ICS CyberVision.  Sentryo ICS CyberVision is a network monitoring and threat intelligence platform that provides cyber-resilience for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA networks. The solution is made up of sensors, central data visualization and analytics software. It passively analyzes industrial network communications, provides meaningful information about network assets, and advanced anomaly detection and alerts in real-time for any threat to operational continuity and system integrity.

Sentryo recognized the advantage of using edge compute or “fog” technology on Cisco IE4000 managed switches versus deploying software on PC’s around a manufacturing facility for cyber-security.  Industrial PCs can pose a host of challenges, especially when spread out in large industrial environments.  Their numbers can increase to levels which challenge support teams to keep them operational and secure.  Edge compute also brings application execution capability closer to the Industrie 4.0 data on the factory floor, which helps industrial customers manage the massive amount of data generated by these systems.  Edge compute also helps address the need for automated, near–real time system responsiveness to factory events.

To deploy edge applications around an industrial environment, it’s also necessary to quickly configure and provision large numbers of network devices.  To do this, the Sentryo ICS CyberVision solution works in tandem with Cisco DNA Center. Cisco DNA Center addresses the demands of digitization, cloud, IoT, and mobility by reducing complexity and protecting against cybersecurity threats.  It also allows an IT organization to align the network with business intent by unifying policy, automation, and assurance with integrated security.

Industrial customers demand security that helps protect their critical IP, their production integrity, and the safety of their systems.  Together, Cisco and Sentryo help provide network and security solutions to meet the unique needs of industrial customers.