Siemens introduces SINEC Security Guard: A game-changing cybersecurity SaaS for industrial operators, automating threat detection & mitigation, debuting at Hannover Messe 2024
SINEC Security Guard, a cloud-based solution, offers automated vulnerability mapping and security management tailored for industrial environments. It enables industrial operators in Operational Technology (OT) settings to swiftly identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities on the shop floor without the need for specialised cybersecurity expertise. By automatically assigning known vulnerabilities to production assets, the software provides a risk-based threat analysis, along with recommendations for prioritised mitigation measures.
Furthermore, the tool integrates task management capabilities, allowing users to plan and monitor mitigation measures seamlessly. SINEC Security Guard is delivered as-a-service and hosted by Siemens, providing accessibility through the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace and Siemens Digital Exchange for purchase starting July 2024.
Increasing protection by reducing manual effort
“With SINEC Security Guard customers can focus their resources on the most urgent and relevant vulnerabilities, while having full risk transparency in their factory. It is unique because it takes the specific situation of the customer’s operational environment into consideration while providing a single pane of glass for security-relevant information in the OT area,”commented Dirk Didascalou, CTO of Siemens Digital Industries. “When developing the SINEC Security Guard, we drew on our extensive experience with cybersecurity in our own factories.”
Today, industrial operators are tasked with continuously safeguarding their production assets on the shop floor. They need to analyze vendor security advisories, manually match them to the asset inventory of their factory and prioritise mitigation measures. Because this process is time-consuming and error-prone using the existing tools, factories are running the risk of missing critical vulnerabilities in their assets or producing false-positives. This can lead to incorrectly configured plant components and inadequately allocated resources. With the SINEC Security Guard, industrial operators can tackle these challenges without needing in-depth cybersecurity knowledge.
Attack detection at scale with Microsoft Sentinel
For a comprehensive view of IT and OT cybersecurity, SINEC Security Guard will also offer a connection to Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft’s Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution for proactive threat detection, investigation, and response. Once connected, SINEC Security Guard can send alerts for security events including attacks to Sentinel, enabling a security analyst to incorporate SINEC Security Guard insights and conclusions in investigations and responses with Microsoft Sentinel powered Security Operations Centers.
“As information technology and operational technology systems continue to converge, a holistic cybersecurity architecture is key to protecting IT and OT capabilities alike. By combining our domain knowledge, Siemens and Microsoft make it easier for industrial operators to efficiently detect and address cybersecurity threats at scale,” commented Ulrich Homann, corporate vice-president, Cloud + AI at Microsoft.
SINEC Security Guard also supports the manual upload of existing asset information for asset inventory. Siemens recommends, however, that industrial operators use the Industrial Asset Hub, Siemens’ cloud-based Asset Management solution to enable continuous automated asset inventory management. Functionalities also include signature-based network intrusion and attack detection via the SINEC Security Guard Sensor, an Industrial Edge app, which gives users live information about their industrial network. The SINEC Security Guard Sensor App is available at the Siemens Industrial Edge Marketplace.
The initial release of SINEC Security Guard only supports Siemens OT assets but third-party device support is planned to follow in the future. SINEC security guard will expand the existing Siemens software portfolio for OT network security consisting of SINEC Security Inspector and SINEC Security Monitor.
