Because system availability is often the most critical issue in OT systems, network operators are seeking a more efficient and less disruptive approach to prevent operations from being affected by cyber threats and cyberattacks, while ensuring maximum system availability. The current prevalence of cybersecurity incidents is prompting governments to pass legislation requiring industries such as energy, electricity, transportation, and critical manufacturing to implement cybersecurity countermeasures in their industrial control systems, particularly in critical network infrastructure. Furthermore, manufacturing companies have begun to enhance the security of their industrial networks to avoid revenue losses or reputational damage. As a result, industrial network security has become a major concern, leading OT and IT departments to collaborate on a holistic solution.
“We believe the best way to orchestrate an industrial network defense solution is to leverage the combined strength of OT and IT expertise,” says Samuel Chiu, General Manager of Moxa’s Industrial Networks business group. “We have extensive and proven experience in industrial networks and protocols, and we are excited to enhance industrial network infrastructure with an integrated OT-IT security solution that provides additional defenses for industrial networks and protects them beyond simply offering network visibility and detection of potential threats.”.
Anticipating the growing demand for industrial network security, Moxa has dedicated significant resources to developing industrial networking devices such as secure routers and Ethernet switches with enhanced security based on the IEC 62443 standard. In addition, Moxa has developed an industrial network defense solution that incorporates IT technologies like the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and focuses on industrial applications. This enables customers to effectively detect and prevent malicious network activity originating within OT networks or from the internet.
Moxa's industrial network defense solution includes an industrial IPS/IDS, EtherFire (next-generation industrial firewall), and MXsecurity (security management software) which together offer the following:
• Advanced network protection
By implementing IPS/IDS technologies in industrial networks, users can protect critical assets by blocking and containing Internet worms and minimizing Trojan attacks through whitelisting and segmentation.
• OT-IT Integration
Moxa's PacketGuard technology can broadly recognize industrial protocols to prevent intrusions and other malicious network behavior that could impede network operations.
• Centralized Security Management:
A summary of cyber activity that allows users to filter issues and automatically provides virtual patches to EtherFire and the industrial IPS/IDS to ensure network devices are up-to-date and protected now and in the future.
“Moxa is dedicated to developing our connectivity product portfolio with integrated security features for our customers and building a secure network infrastructure,” says Li Peng, Product Manager of Moxa’s Industrial Network Security business unit. “Thanks to our strong foundation in industrial networking, our new industrial network defense solution brings a holistic OT-IT security platform to our OT customers. We will continue to relentlessly develop our solutions to meet the demands of users across all our industrial applications.”
The main components of Moxa's industrial network defense solution will begin deployment in the first quarter of 2020.
