Sectra has entered into a strategic partnership with a Swedish energy company for increased security of critical IT systems. The partnership encompasses the development and testing of a monitoring service for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in energy distribution.
Growing use of IT and the connection of IT systems to the Internet contribute to efficiency enhancements in society and simplify everyday life. At the same time, technological advances mean that society and individuals are more vulnerable to human error, technical faults, unauthorized data access and virus attacks. Sectra already develops products and services for secure tele and data communications, which are used to protect the most sensitive information handled by authorities and defense organizations in Europe. The company is now launching monitoring services and security analyses for customers within the Critical Infrastructure sector. This offering has been developed in partnership with a company in the energy sector.
“Energy and water distribution are areas in which we see an opportunity to contribute to a stable and secure society by leveraging Sectra’s unique expertise in data security and threat analyses. Accordingly, we are expanding our offering in secure communication with security assessments and monitoring services for such operations that are essential to society. These are services that allow customers to make use of the opportunities presented by new technology without increasing their exposure to risks,” says Torbjörn Kronander, President and CEO of Sectra.
A prerequisite for business development and enhanced efficiency in the energy sector is to link together data carrier systems for remote control, control and business governance, for example. Expanded information flows improve the ability to make well-founded decisions and efficiently maintain the IT infrastructure. This growing exchange of data also increases vulnerability and exposure to cyberthreats.
Sectra’s service for independent monitoring of SCADA systems, meaning systems for monitoring and controlling processes in, for example, electricity distribution, provides an indication when changes in data traffic arise in such systems. Such changes could be due to error or technical fault or malicious code entering the system, which requires action to prevent the operations from being affected. In serious cases, such events could result in operational disruptions that could have disastrous effects on society.
More information on Sectra’s possibilities to contribute to the stability of critical societal functions: Sectra CEO comments on recent cybersecurity news
Source & Image Credit: Sectra
