Keysight and Nozomi Networks deliver real-time visibility to secure ICS, IIoT and IT networks
Keysight Technologies, a leading technology company that helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced a collaboration with Nozomi Networks, the leader in industrial cyber security and operational visibility, to deliver a joint solution that enables utilities, oil and gas facilities, and other industrial manufacturing sites to identify and defend against cyberattacks.
Industrial operational technology (OT) networks are vulnerable to cyberattacks through connections to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), as well as the convergence with traditional IT networks, which add complexity.
According to Gartner, “although there are still distinctive OT security and IIoT security markets, the direction of this market is to converge IIoT into a ’digital security’ market covering IT, OT, IoT and the physical security markets.”1 This evolution creates specific security concerns to OT.
The new joint solution from Ixia, a Keysight business, and Nozomi Neworks includes an Ixia Vision network packet broker (NPB), which collects data from all locations connected to an operational network and delivers it to Nozomi Networks Guardian for real-time processing and analysis.
Ixia’s aggregation of traffic removes duplicate packets and unwanted traffic to improve performance and visibility into critical systems and processes, delivering comprehensive, automated visibility to secure connected operational environments.
“Today’s industrial OT networks are often connected to the internet and almost certainly converged with enterprise IT networks which, without effective security, can increase operational risks and jeopardize reliability and safety,” said Chet Namboodri, vice president of Business Development, Nozomi Networks.
“The combination of Ixia’s packet-level visibility expertise and Nozomi Networks’ knowledge in OT and IoT cyber security and visibility, enables customers to accelerate incident response and threat detection, prevent outages and ensure uptime in IT, OT and IoT network environments.”
The joint solution can also be integrated with security information and event management (SIEM), as well as other systems, to establish automated threat response to indicators of compromise (IoCs). In addition, Ixia’s NPBs integrate with tools such as firewalls to improve policy enforcement and mitigate unwanted traffic.
“Operational networks are facing an expanded security attack surface from IT, OT and IoT networks and devices, but patching may take weeks or even months to implement in industrial environments,” said Scott Westlake, vice president of alliances at Keysight’s Network Applications & Security Group (formerly Ixia Solutions Group).
“Many OT control system connections are wireless, so detecting and troubleshooting issues requires continuous monitoring. This joint solution delivers a comprehensive view of networks and devices, so customers can defend their businesses and critical infrastructure against cyberattacks.”