This collaboration combines Radiflow’s expertise in OT cybersecurity with Garland’s packet visibility technology to deliver a cost-effective, enhanced, end-to-end security solution for critical infrastructure and industrial plants.

Nation-state threat actors are increasingly focusing their attention on disrupting industrial processes and critical infrastructure. Radiflow and Garland’s partnership helps operators detect anomalies in network behavior and communications that might be indicators of compromise.

Garland’s network TAPs capture every communication packet and send a copy to Radiflow’s OT Security Platform for prompt analysis.

As anomalies are detected, Radiflow’s platform automatically alerts stakeholders and security personnel of a potential cyber attack, so that they can respond effectively.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Garland,” said Ilan Barda, founder and CEO of Radiflow. “Their solution enables our customers to see and monitor every network event without requiring expensive investment in intrusive switches. The partnership helps put our customers on track toward NIS2 and IEC 62443 compliance.”

“Garland Technology has been involved in critical infrastructure projects since 2011 when we designed our first Data Diode TAP for a customer,” said Chris Bihary, CEO & Co-Founder. “Since then, we’ve been building network visibility products to help provide technologies like Radiflow’s OT Security Platform the packet-level visibility needed to protect the world’s most critical assets. This exciting solution takes replicated data from our network TAPs and Data Diodes and turns it into actionable insights that facilitate precise threat detection. Together, we’ve simplified network management and security operations in closed and segregated environments that still use old and legacy network equipment while enhancing overall control and visibility.”

The collaboration between Radiflow and Garland Technology ensures complete data capture of all network transactions, enabling effective anomaly detection.

This facilitates precise threat detection and reduces false positives through uninterrupted data analysis. Additionally, it maintains network performance and uptime with secured data streaming.

The joint solution is highly flexible. It adapts to a variety of network configurations and can scale seamlessly with infrastructure changes. Security teams can monitor multiple environments from a single centralized dashboard.

This technology partnership underscores Radiflow and Garland’s commitment to OT security, as they empower operators of cyber physical systems (CPS) with the tools and insights necessary to defend against today and tomorrow’s cyber threats.

This partnership delivers a cost-effective approach to enhanced security, while creating a clear path toward compliance with industry standards, such as NIS 2 and IEC 62443. Customers can operate their OT environments with full confidence that they are protected from current and future threats.

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With the growth in digital transformation of businesses, there has been an increase in tools and tech solutions that allow for greater connectivity.

From cloud and artificial intelligence to operational technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT), businesses are more connected than ever before.

And while these tech advancements have created more efficiencies, increased productivity and furnished businesses with more in-depth insights, they have also expanded the threat landscape.

As industrial operations have gotten smarter, the use of OT and IoT has proliferated. TXOne’s latest research found that 68% of organisations were continuously increasing their OT budgets.

This is the result of digital transformation investments demonstrating their worth to business owners and decision makers.

Board members and C-level executives are more informed about the benefits these technologies can bring to an organisation with many becoming increasingly involved in decisions around OT. However, with each new device, comes a new entry-point that needs to be secured.

Knowing this, insurance and auditing companies are driving organisations to be more compliant when it comes to OT security.

It’s becoming common practice for insurance companies to audit organisations and determine their premiums or if they can be considered for cover based on their compliance. Cyberattacks like ransomware and distributed denial of service (DDoS) are not only costly for the targeted organisation, but the companies that insure them.

The expansion of the threat surface through smart industrial operations has left organisations exposed. And while cybercriminals present a significant risk, there are vulnerabilities within organisations that impact OT security.

Legacy hinders OT security

Businesses in the industrial market like mining, oil and gas, manufacturing or utilities, are often operating with legacy infrastructure.

These systems were built with longevity in mind, and this comes at great expense – often hundreds of millions if not billions of rands. Because factories and plants are built for long-term use – some 40 or 50 years – it’s therefore not so easy to simply refresh operations.

There’s also the issue that a plant or factory’s infrastructure was built at a time when organisations didn’t have the technology that’s available today and so cybersecurity was not a factor.

However, as advancements are made in industry and new technology is adopted, solutions have been retrofitted to legacy infrastructure.

When it comes to considering the security of these new tech devices and systems, it’s then difficult to deploy patches and updates in a way that does not interrupt operations.

Bringing a factory offline for any amount of time can cost money, which is often the hesitancy businesses have when it comes to addressing their OT security.

However, a delay to business operations does not have to take place when the right OT security partner is brought on board. With industry experience, technicians are able to manage cyber defences across legacy infrastructure and can prevent interruptions and downtime.

Perception versus reality

Reluctance to disrupt a day’s work to update OT security is not the only risk businesses face. Many industrial organisations don’t have complete visibility of their OT and IoT assets and the possible vulnerabilities.

At TXOne, customers have approached us to provide a risk assessment with the understanding that there are 5,000 operational assets within the organisation. However, after a risk assessment, we’ve sometimes found five times this amount. This lack of visibility makes an organisation and its operations vulnerable to attack. You can’t protect something you can’t see.

Because there isn’t a clear view of these operational assets, minor problems with IoT devices or systems are often attributed to a network problem. However, on closer inspection, these issues turn out to be a cyber-related incident that’s been causing trouble for an extended period of time.

To address these risks, organisations need to have a complete view of what’s in their operational environment.

This is done through a risk assessment, which will quantify assets and vulnerabilities. Having this initial visibility can seem overwhelming at first, but it will provide businesses with a starting point.

From there, it’s possible to build out a phased approach that will include getting the basics of OT security right and then seeing where else risk can be reduced.

In a rapidly evolving threat landscape, working with the right security partner can ensure organisations can safeguard their critical infrastructure.

It’s this experience and expertise that will ensure compliance, overcome legacy infrastructure challenges and visibility gaps using zero trust principles for visibility, control and protection.