Rockwell Automation introduces its security monitoring and response service, priming partner businesses with adaptive responsiveness and visibility for operational technology (OT) in industrial settings and facilities serving as critical infrastructure. The solution provides continuous real-time monitoring and threat detection, contextualized threat alerts, and tailored support from the Rockwell cybersecurity team experts to eliminate threats and minimize downtime.
Barriers to onboarding an effective OT cybersecurity solution include solution complexity, system integration, and employee training/education. Image used courtesy of Rockwell
Securing Critical Infrastructure and Industrial Systems
OT–Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Industrial Control Systems (ICS)–pervades our society's critical infrastructure and industrial environments. Cyberattacks targeting OT across various sectors can cause disruption, production line delays, potential safety hazards for employees (due to mechanical faults in automated machinery), and financial loss.
If the OT monitoring and controlling the operations at a water management facility goes down, water cannot be treated properly, making it unsafe for consumption. If an energy provider falls prey to a cyberattack, this can cause power outages in industrial sites, business centres, and residential homes.
A report by Palo Alto Networks and ABI Research in 2024 (including 2,000 practitioners and executives from a total of 16 countries) identified that a substantial 70% of respondents had experienced cyberattacks in the previous year. Seventy-four percent of participants also expressed that they anticipated AI-enabled cyberattacks to pose a significant threat to their OT systems.
Formulating robust cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and industrial systems is paramount to maintaining business growth, safeguarding employees, and keeping society running at a larger scale.
Enhancing OT Security with Rockwell’s Latest Solution
Rockwell’s security monitoring and response service is intended to improve business security posture, offering customers 24/7 monitoring of OT operations in real-time with expert support from the company’s OT Security Operations Center (SOC) platform. SOC analysts respond to threats with pace and offer guided support to tackle them and get operations back up and running.
Rockwell offers a vendor-agnostic approach to OT environment security, providing all-around surveillance every hour and every day of the year. Greater visibility of facility operations is aided by contextualized cyberthreat alerts and agile responsiveness. The security monitoring and response service employs automated alert tuning and a rationalization system that incorporates OT/IT threat intelligence, innovative analytics, and pre-set OT threat regulations.
Rockwell Automation's dedicated team of cyber specialists has the skills and commitment to help develop and initiate the right strategy to safeguard OT environments. Video used courtesy of Rockwell
Church and Dwight
Rockwell’s OT cybersecurity team worked alongside a global provider of consumer goods, Church and Dwight, to enhance cybersecurity across their manufacturing operations. The task involved identifying vulnerabilities concerning manufacturing assets and potential network threats and devising a three-pronged approach to optimize OT cybersecurity and grow a more cyber-aware workplace culture. Rockwell started with basic security assessments and workshops with staff to quantify the risks and procure stakeholder buy-in.
Rockwell’s Security Milestone
Making history, Rockwell's Milwaukee manufacturing facility is the first industrial operations plant to be accredited under IEC 62443-3-3. Rockwell's achievement demonstrates their commitment to safe manufacturing practices and gives customers peace of mind that their products are manufactured in a cyber-protected environment. Furthermore, this accreditation shows that Rockwell has a thorough understanding of the essential role that cybersecurity serves in workplaces, both for their own business operations and as proof of their ability to safeguard their clients' infrastructure.
