During the Siemens press conference at Hannover Fair 2014, Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, member of the managing board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens' Industry Sector, announced that Siemens is extending its partnership with security provider McAfee to bolster Siemens own industrial security services. The two companies have been working together on industrial security applications since 2011 and this announcement highlights the developing partnership between the two companies at a time when industrial control system security becomes an increasingly important issue for manufacturers.
Specifically, the partnership extension will focus on the incorporation of McAfee products such as their next generation firewall, security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint security, and global threat intelligence into Siemens’ Managed Security Service. “These offerings provide greater visibility and control at the factory level while reducing the risk of IP theft,” said Russwurm. “Industrial security is one of the building blocks of connected manufacturing environments and for the continued resurgence of the manufacturing sector globally. This partnership will be an important foundation for the future of manufacturing and Industry 4.0.”
Noting that you “can’t bolt on security after the fact to get the results you want,” Michael Fey, worldwide chief technology officer at McAfee, made it clear that the partnership between Siemens and McAfee is “not just about white listing. It’s about cleansing the network environment and testing that environment to ensure delivery and accuracy of the data,” he said.
“That’s why we’re working with Siemens to build dedicated systems for the industrial environment,” Fey added. “Understanding cybersecurity is core to us, but we need help from Siemens to communicate the need for better security to industry and to help us better understand the unique requirements of the industrial environment.”
Fey said the goal of this partnership is to deliver “comprehensive situational awareness. We can do this today in corporate IT and we’re going to use our knowledge here to create this same level of awareness for industry. Working with Siemens will accelerate this.”
Despite the urgency expressed at the press conference for moving forward with this partnership, Fey noted that industry is not yet “at a point of impending doom with lots of attacks about to happen. But we know we have to answers for this very soon. Too many companies are still relying on air gaps to protect their systems.”
