Engineering and technology major Siemens, and cyber security systems provider Tenable Inc, have announced a partnership to cater to the energy, utilities and oil and gas companies with a new portfolio for industrial asset discovery and vulnerability management.
At a time when the risk of cyberattacks against critical infrastructure has grown exponentially, two cybersecurity and OT services providers have teamed up to launch ‘industrial security’ from Tenable, which Siemens is delivering as a service to help companies secure and protect their critical OT assets.
The Tenable-Siemens partnership, announced recently, can help organisations address this challenge of not knowing where they are at greatest risk. By leveraging the capabilities of both companies, customers will gain a better understanding of where their OT assets may be vulnerable.
The combination of Tenable’s technology, the first OT-dedicated passive vulnerability detection solution that gives customers visibility into their greatest risks, combined with Siemens’ domain expertise and operational knowhow, forms a portfolio that can help customers close this knowledge gap so they can protect their critical assets.
“Organisations running operational technology face a foundational security challenge – the need to understand the entirety of their cyber exposure in the context of a modern attack surface that is constantly evolving,” Amit Yoran, CEO of Tenable, was quoted as saying in a press release.
The stakes have never been higher when it comes to cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. The number of cyberattacks worldwide continues to grow, with OT becoming a growing target, now comprising 30% of all cyberattacks, with a major impact on productivity, uptime, efficiency and safety, according to recent research conducted by Ponemon Institute on the state of cybersecurity in the US oil and gas industry.
The deployment of cybersecurity measures isn’t keeping pace with the growth of digitalisation in oil and gas operations and the inability to accurately understand and represent cyber risk at any given time creates a massive cyber exposure gap.
“Cyberattacks against the oil and gas and utilities sector are on the rise and growing more sophisticated and aggressive by the day. Passive monitoring of all assets in these systems is critical to detecting and addressing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited and lead to disruption of essential public services like electricity, gas, and water,” said Leo Simonovich, vice president and global head – Industrial Cyber and Digital Security at Siemens Energy.
