Frost & Sullivan Honors Wurldtech for Securing Complex Industrial Environments
Wurldtech's OpShield solution identifies operational technology weaknesses, prioritizes and protects vulnerable areas, mitigates immediate risks and reduces the overall attack surface
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan today announced Wurldtech, a GE company, is the recipient of the 2016 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Line Strategy Leadership. The award culminates Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis of the security solutions market for industrial control systems (ICS). Wurldtech's expertise in operational technology (OT) security has fostered OpShield, a unique defense-in-depth cybersecurity solution that combines the capability of an industrial firewall with deep protocol inspection and ICS vulnerability protection to protect critical infrastructure in industries such as oil and gas, power generation, healthcare and transportation. The company also provides a wide array of services and certifications for both communication and devices, ensuring the adoption of best practices throughout the end user's site, systems and processes.
The OpShield solution has been specifically designed for digital industrial environments to detect and protect against threats targeted at ICS, SCADA, distributed control systems (DCS) and connected devices. It utilizes machine-learning algorithms to learn from different industrial processes, and it then develops whitelists and enforcement policies the processes, controls and critical assets in that environment.
While traditional security solutions focus on protecting data on the IT network, OpShield contains a protocol inspection engine that adapts to OT protocols and identifies and blocks vulnerabilities right at the application command level, thereby decreasing the threat surface. Notably, it allows end users to control their networks and address vulnerabilities without taking the systems offline.
"OpShield can be offered as a modular solution that can be scaled to accommodate the various types of industrial control system environments," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Sonia Francisco. "It facilitates a drag and drop virtual zone for segmentation without network re-engineering, making it easier to protect different parts of the ecosystem."
The solution monitors industrial protocols and delivers security alerts to the management console as well as third-party security information and event management (SIEM) tools. Significantly, it can be integrated into existing industrial setups without major alterations and aid in protecting legacy equipment and communication buses.
Another important offering from Wurldtech is the Achilles Test Platform and security assessments for testing of devices through the product development lifecycle. Its security assessments reduce patching requirements and improve device reliability, while the Achilles certifications enable end users to meet industry benchmarks and standards. The Achilles® Communications Certification checks the customer's deployment of devices, while Achilles Practices Certification helps end users to meet requirements outlined by the Werkgroep Instrument Beoorderling (WIB) and the IEC 62443-2 standard.
Wurldtech has a series of security management solutions that include site security assessments, North America Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), critical infrastructure protection (CIP) vulnerability assessments, International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62443 gap assessments, and security training. While the site security assessment provides a comprehensive perspective of the company's overall security posture, the site security health check delivers in-depth security insights into a specific operation, process or system.
Wurldtech has an extensive services program that not only supports site assessments but also device assessments and health checks to identify weaknesses in devices. Its industrial experts' in-depth knowledge of critical infrastructure industries and numerous devices and systems aids them in conducting assessments at any time, in dissimilar environments such as remote sites, offshore oil rigs and production plant environments.
GE, which acquired Wurldtech in 2014, embeds security at every level and incorporates Wurldtech's solutions to secure its connected machines. For the overall superiority of its innovative product line and ability to cater to the diverse requirements of quality and functionality, Frost & Sullivan is pleased to present Wurldtech with the 2016 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Line Strategy Leadership.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a comprehensive product line that caters to the breadth of the market it serves. The award recognizes the extent to which the product line meets customer demands, the overall impact it has in terms of customer value as well as increased market share.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
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