Trend Micro Teams Up with Baker Hughes to Address Cybersecurity Challenges Facing Enterprise Customers

By AIT News Desk On Feb 3, 2020

Companies will help deliver industry leading protection for critical infrastructure and operational technology environment

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, announced that it will collaborate with Baker Hughes’ Nexus Controls operational technology (OT) security experts through a strategic framework agreement, signed in late 2019. Together the companies aim to provide comprehensive, industry leading guidance and support for enterprises running critical OT environments.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is expanding rapidly and is predicted to add $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Under the terms of the agreement, Trend Micro and Baker Hughes plan to work together to help mitigate these and other cyber-risks in support of IT and security leaders looking to drive digital transformation success. The Strategic Alliance Agreement contemplates:

Trend Micro products bundled as part of Nexus Controls
Assessments for IIoT cybersecurity and threat, providing defense-in-depth specifics
Joint development of IIoT cyber security best practices and resources
Expertise to help IIoT leaders identify risk and threat vectors in specific OT environments and recommendations on how to eliminate these issues
Additional security solutions purpose-built for OT environments

Legacy operating systems, communication protocols, patching challenges, widespread vulnerabilities, and poor authentication processes are all known security risks in IIoT environments. Trend Micro research over recent years has highlighted issues with SCADA Human Machine Interface (HMI) systems, MQTT and CoAP comms protocols, and serious security problems with the radio frequency (RF) controllers used in industrial machinery. Nexus Controls’ cybersecurity solutions, including SecurityST, are a natural fit with Trend Micro’s products to provide a more comprehensive and secure offering for OT environments.

“Organizations in industrial, manufacturing, oil & gas, power and other sectors are rushing to digitally transform their operations in a bid to become more efficient, cost effective and agile. But this converging of IT and OT has the unwanted impact of exposing legacy technologies to the risk of cyber-attack,” said Oscar Chang, executive vice president of development, Trend Micro. “Together with Baker Hughes, we’ll be able to deliver purpose-built solutions and expertise designed specifically to mitigate cyber risk in these critical environments, arming CISOs and Operational Technologists with the knowledge and tools they need to drive value for the entire organization.”

“We have built a reputation as a trusted partner in the OT security space through our long history of cyber protection, with over three million operational hours protecting critical infrastructure,” said Terry Knight, Vice President at Baker Hughes. “Enterprise customers will benefit from the additional threat intelligence provided from Trend Micro. Together with Trend Micro, Nexus Controls will offer what we believe to be one of the most comprehensive packages of security solutions in the industry today.”