To address the need to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities on the shop floor as quickly as possible, Siemens has launched a new cybersecurity software-as-a-service (SaaS).

The cloud-based SINEC Security Guard offers automated vulnerability mapping and security management optimized for industrial operators in OT environments. The software can automatically assign known cybersecurity vulnerabilities to the production assets of industrial companies. This allows industrial operators and automation experts who don’t have dedicated cybersecurity expertise to identify cybersecurity risks among their OT assets on the shop floor and receive a risk- based threat analysis. The software then recommends and prioritizes mitigation measures. Defined mitigation measures can also be planned and tracked by the tool’s integrated task management. 

SINEC Security Guard is hosted by Siemens and will be available for purchase in July on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace and on the Siemens Digital Exchange.

“With SINEC Security Guard, customers can focus their resources on the most urgent and relevant vulnerabilities, while having full risk transparency in their factory,” says Dirk Didascalou, CTO of Siemens Digital Industries. “It is unique because it takes the specific situation of the customer’s operational environment into consideration while providing a single pane of glass for security- relevant information in the OT area. When developing the SINEC Security Guard, we drew on our extensive experience with cybersecurity in our own factories.”

For a comprehensive view of IT and OT cybersecurity, SINEC Security Guard will also offer a connection to Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft’s Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution for proactive threat detection, investigation and response. Once connected, SINEC Security Guard can send alerts for security events including attacks to Sentinel, enabling a security analyst to incorporate SINEC Security Guard insights and conclusions in investigations and responses with Microsoft Sentinel powered Security Operations Centers.

“As information technology and operational technology systems continue to converge, a holistic cybersecurity architecture is key to protecting IT and OT capabilities alike,” says Ulrich Homann, corporate vice president, Cloud + AI at Microsoft. “By combining our domain knowledge, Siemens and Microsoft make it easier for industrial operators to efficiently detect and address cybersecurity threats at scale.”

SINEC Security Guard also supports the manual upload of existing asset information for asset inventory. Siemens recommends, however, that industrial operators use the Industrial Asset Hub, the Siemens cloud-based Asset Management solution, to enable continuous automated asset inventory management.

Functionalities also include signature-based network intrusion and attack detection via the SINEC Security Guard Sensor, an Industrial Edge app, which gives users live information about their industrial network. The SINEC Security Guard Sensor App is available at the Siemens Industrial Edge Marketplace.

The initial release of SINEC Security Guard only supports Siemens OT assets but third-party device support is planned in the future. SINEC Security Guard will expand the existing Siemens software portfolio for OT network security consisting of SINEC Security Inspector and SINEC Security Monitor.