The Siemens Industry Sector and McAfee, a division of Intel Security, plan to extend their partnership to enhance the security offerings for industrial customers to protect against rapidly evolving global cyber threats. This partnership will take advantage of the depth of both companies' security portfolios and further enhances the joint effort started in 2011.
Industrial customers face unique new challenges including a wider range of cyber threats than ever before. They often lack the resources necessary to respond efficiently to security incidents and do not have access to the global threat intelligence that would allow proactive defensive measures. This critical information is needed in order to keep up with evolving government regulations, industry standards, sector specific best practices, and other risk information necessary for making informed business decisions.
The cooperation with McAfee will complement Siemens' service offerings by leveraging security solutions such as next generation firewall, security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint security, and global threat intelligence as part of its Managed Security Service as well as offering professional services. These offerings provide greater visibility and control at the factory level while reducing the risk of IP theft.
"McAfee's broad portfolio of security technologies can serve as a great enabler of Siemens Industrial Security service offerings," said Siegfried Russwurm, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens' Industry Sector speaking at the Hannover Messe. "This will further strengthen our leading position in automation and drive technologies by providing additional security solutions and services to our industrial customer base. Industrial security is one of the building blocks for strong demand 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 Industrie 4.0."
"Siemens provides a deep experience in automation across numerous industries," said Michael Fey, worldwide chief technology officer at McAfee. "By combining forces, McAfee, Intel and Siemens can drive the adoption of connected, managed and secured solutions at the plant level in order to help industrial customers to manage their security while bringing the uptime and reliability of the plant operations to a higher level. This collaboration should allow us to address the unique requirements of Industrial Control System customers for the operations technology market thus providing a complete security view across the entire company."
In addition, the companies will continue to cooperate on the development of security products and solutions, specifically based on industrial protocols, that will enhance managed security service offerings for the process and factory automation industry. As "Industrie 4.0", part of the "Internet of Things and Services" rolls out, industrial customers will benefit from the unique advantages that connected and managed systems bring to the factory floor.
