Belden and Forescout advance cybersecurity for industrial organizations and critical infrastructure
Belden and its Tripwire and Hirschmann brands announced an extended partnership with Forescout to advance cybersecurity for industrial organizations and critical infrastructure.
The companies will introduce enhanced joint offerings to address industry needs for network segmentation and threat detection to maintain visibility to and protection from cyber events that threaten safety, productivity, and quality.
“Over the next decade, industrial networks will evolve to supply additional bandwidth to the machine level, allowing for applications to share the same network,” said Ashish Chand, Executive VP, Industrial Automation at Belden.
“Network segmentation will be imperative to meet availability requirements for these real-time, next generation industrial automation networks. Belden and Forescout allow operators to begin segmenting their networks today with existing infrastructure, while also providing a trajectory for additional controls as next generation networks are deployed over time.
“We are excited to provide for the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s networks by expanding our partnership with Forescout and combining our complementary industrial cybersecurity capabilities.”
Industrial network segmentation made easy
Enhanced integration between the Forescout platform and Hirschmann network infrastructure makes segmentation an immediate, viable defense against cyber incidents. Whereas other solutions require time-consuming, complex deployments, this integration allows for rapid implementation over heterogeneous automation networks, minimizing disruption and downtime.
The addition of Forescout eyeSegment simplifies the initial creation and ongoing lifecycle management of segmentation policies at scale, while also providing simulation of enforcement before implementation to avoid any disruption to mission-critical operations.
Hirschmann’s switches are able to feed eyeSegment network flows to provide North/South and East/West traffic visibility. This innovation allows industrial networks to achieve micro segmentation – protecting critical assets from malware, ransomware and other incidents that comprise reliability.
The secure factory solution for threat detection and response
The integration of Forescout, Tripwire and Hirschmann capabilities provide a holistic, synergistic industrial cybersecurity platform for threat detection and response, enabling both safety and uptime.
The integrated platform delivers comprehensive cybersecurity and operational visibility with industrial context that allows operators to proactively identify and respond to threats in a way that does not affect availability nor require an enormous budget.
The joint solution, through the recent addition of Forescout SilentDefense to the Tripwire cybersecurity portfolio and Hirschmann Industrial HiVision for network management, has asset inventory and advanced network troubleshooting capabilities that provide both IT and OT perspective for maximum uptime.
Innovation through partnership
Forescout and Tripwire are also co-innovating to drive cybersecurity and operational improvements by incorporating efficient and accurate configuration management against cybersecurity frameworks as criteria for network access in industrial environments.
Additional enhancements will drive proactive, automated response workflows, minimizing the time a controls engineer would need to analyze and take action against critical findings from log, vulnerability, and change management foundational cybersecurity controls.
“The accelerated digitalization of OT environments is creating unique cybersecurity challenges for industrial networks across the globe. Cybersecurity needs must co-exist with operational safety and uptime goals,” said Pedro Abreu, chief product and strategy officer, Forescout.
“The combination of Belden’s deep expertise and portfolio in OT with Forescout’s leadership in network visibility and control offers organizations a comprehensive platform that provides both cybersecurity and operational benefits.”