Innovative Analytics Enable OT Security Teams to Proactively Mitigate Risk For Their Most Critical OT Assets

BOSTON, July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CyberX, provider of the most widely-deployed industrial cybersecurity platform for continuously reducing ICS risk, today announced new breach and attack vector simulation technology that incorporates proprietary analytics to continuously predict and help prevent targeted attacks on critical Operational Technology (OT) assets.

An industry first, CyberX's new ICS Attack Vector Prediction technology generates a visual representation of all possible attack chains — ranked by risk — that can compromise critical OT assets such as robotics machinery in manufacturing plants and circuit breakers in electrical substations. This innovative approach immediately highlights the most important security gaps, enabling OT security teams to proactively mitigate risk and prioritize mitigation activities based on the most likely attack scenarios — enabling more effective use of limited skilled resources and narrow maintenance windows.

Security teams can quickly simulate what-if mitigation actions to continuously adjust their security posture and reduce their attack surface, such as "If I isolate or patch this insecure device, does it eliminate the risk to my most critical assets?" In addition, visualization of potential breach paths (see screen shot) helps business management and OT stakeholders more easily understand the business impact of top risks to their most valuable assets.

"Targeted attacks and malware pose real and demonstrable risks to critical infrastructure and industrial organizations," said Nir Giller, CTO/CISO and co-founder of CyberX. "But as we've seen from recent attacks, it's not always practical to patch or upgrade older ICS/SCADA systems and devices. CyberX's new ICS Attack Vector Prediction technology helps security teams dramatically increase OT resilience by validating precisely which mitigations — such as network zoning or stronger authentication — can effectively eliminate the attack vectors with the highest risk of compromising critical assets."

Proprietary Analytics Enable Attack Vector Simulation Without Impacting OT Infrastructures

CyberX's attack vector simulation is based on its detailed analysis of all network and endpoint vulnerabilities identified by CyberX's agentless asset discovery and vulnerability assessment technology. Unlike active vulnerability scanning approaches developed for IT rather than OT environments, the CyberX platform combines a deep understanding of industrial protocols and industrial devices with non-invasive network traffic analysis (NTA), in order to comprehensively identify OT vulnerabilities without impacting OT networks or causing downtime of operational assets.

CyberX was the first industrial cybersecurity company to enrich its platform for continuous monitoring and ICS behavioral analytics with ICS vulnerability assessments, and the first to establish an in-house ICS threat intelligence research team. Composed of world-class cyber experts with nation-state experience defending critical infrastructures, CyberX's R&D team developed its Attack Vector Prediction technology using their deep expertise about industrial networks and real-world attacker tactics.

In a related release, CyberX today announced that, with the delivery of this new attack prediction technology, CyberX is now addressing all four requirements of Gartner's Adaptive Security Architecture, including Prediction, Prevention, Detection, and Response.

CyberX will be demonstrating its continuous ICS threat monitoring and risk assessment platform — along with its new Attack Vector Prediction technology — at Black Hat 2017 in Las Vegas, July 26-27 (booth #58 in the Innovation City, on the 2nd floor near the Arsenal tool demo area).

Join us on Wednesday, July 26 at 3pm PT for a book signing and book giveaway with Clint Bodungen, the lead author of "ICS Hacking Exposed," the definitive 390-page guide published by McGraw-Hill Education (while supplies last).

About CyberX (Twitter: @CyberX_Labs)

CyberX provides the most widely-deployed industrial cybersecurity platform for continuously reducing ICS risk. Deployed in the world's largest environments and backed by ex-military cyber experts, the CyberX platform uniquely combines continuous ICS threat monitoring with proprietary M2M behavioral analytics and ICS-specific threat intelligence to identify advanced cyberattacks in real-time.

By monitoring ICS/SCADA/OT networks for targeted attacks, ransomware and industrial malware, the CyberX platform enables organizations to prevent costly production outages, catastrophic safety failures, and theft of corporate IP.

CyberX has gained considerable industry recognition including being named one of the "10 Coolest IoT Start-Ups" by CRN. The company is also the only industrial cybersecurity vendor selected for the SINET16 Innovator Award sponsored by the US DHS and DoD, and the only ICS security vendor recognized by the International Society of Automation (ISA).

An active member of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the ICS-ISAC, CyberX's groundbreaking ICS threat intelligence research was recently featured in the popular McGraw-Hill book series, "ICS Hacking Exposed." For more information visit CyberX-Labs.com.