Schneider Electric and Claroty yesterday launched Cybersecurity Solutions for Buildings, a solution both companies jointly developed to help buildings owners secure their building management systems (BMS) to protect their people, assets and operations.
The solution will identify all facility-wide assets, deliver risk and vulnerability management capabilities, and provide continuous threat monitoring to protect enterprise investments.
“The integration of IoT in buildings is sparking an exciting shift across the sector, but like with any innovation, it also presents new risks,” said Annick Villeneuve, vice president for digital Enterprise Solutions, Schneider Electric.
Smart buildings face heightened exposure to risks
Indeed, Schneider Electric cited that IoT technology for buildings is expected to grow from an existing 1.7 billion connected devices at the end of 2020 to over 3 billion by 2025.
As these commercial buildings evolve into smart buildings of the future, they share at least one common trait: heightened exposure to risks. This is driving commercial buildings to digitize their assets, including modernising their building management system.
The sector must address the security challenges presented by smart buildings. Studies have shown that 57% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high-severity attacks. Cyberattacks have already harmed several businesses, including critical infrastructure such as hospitals, data centers, and hotels. The commercial building sector must find ways to safeguard both its access to the company’s IT systems as well as its mission-critical infrastructure.
Villeneuve said: “For threat actors looking to disrupt operations, benefit financially and/or achieve other objectives, and in so doing to put individuals at risk, buildings can appear to be the perfect target. It is with this in mind that we are partnering with Claroty to bring our customers a comprehensive, industry-leading solution that meets the unique security and operational risks facing buildings of today and of the future.”
Protecting cyberphysical assets
As more IoT devices are deployed within the buildings space and increased connectivity between previously isolated operational technology, building management systems (BMS), and their IT counterparts, have made them attractive targets and vulnerable to cyberattacks. Additionally, facility managers oversee hundreds of vendors, service contractors, and technicians in a fragmented manner, increasing complexity and risk.
“When it comes to securing cyber-physical systems, including BMS, the number one priority is to keep physical processes operational and safe,” said Keith Carter, vice president of worldwide channels and Alliances, Claroty. “By fusing Claroty’s deep domain expertise and purpose-built technology with Schneider Electric’s renowned services and commitment to driving digital transformation globally, we are empowering our customers to reap the benefits of smart building technologies without increasing their exposure to cyber risk, thereby taking a profound step toward creating a more efficient, sustainable future for the world.”
The Cybersecurity Solutions for Buildings is designed to give building owners, facility operators and security teams a simple solution without adding further workload. It identifies baseline risks, continually reduces both cyber and asset risks, and identifies and remediates threats in their environment before services are interrupted. Some of its key features include:
- a simple, vendor agnostic solution with which they can easily fulfil secure remote access, asset inventory, efficiency, and other related requirements from building owners and asset managers.
- automated asset discovery and network mapping solution that identifies and catalogues all system assets (BMS, IoT, UPS, Power Systems, etc.).
- continuous threat detection solution that constantly monitors buildings networks to identify, assess, and alert at the earliest indicators of network and asset level anomalies.
- external, secure tunnels to connect to and maintain specific resources and assets in the building network easily and without introducing additional risk.
- dashboards and reporting capabilities to enable management and security teams to understand current situations, receive tailored recommendations, and drive the proper actions to reduce a building’s exposure to safety, operational, financial, and reputational risks.
- secure remote access (SRA) solution that is purpose-built for buildings and OT environments to increase building security when vendors, contractors, and technicians are performing remote maintenance activities.
Furthermore, the visibility and intelligence gained on the building OT and Asset Environment through the deployment of Schneider Electric’s Cybersecurity for Buildings solutions can also bring additional benefits to the building owners and operators to enhance their building operational efficiency and productivity with actionable insights.
