Critical Infrastructure Is Under Assault – Raytheon and Virsec May Have a Solution
Brilliance Security Magazine, April 23, 2018
Raytheon, Virsec Form Alliance to Market Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity
Federal Times, April 23, 2018
Running on older operating systems and software, critical infrastructures are particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks. And the attackers themselves are sophisticated and especially skilled at evasive tactics. Attackers include nation-state hackers highly motivated to break in for a variety of motives, ranging from espionage to hijacking and gaining control to bringing widespread destruction. In an industry where security options are strongly needed, Raytheon and Virsec join together to offer an effective cybersecurity solution.
Raytheon brings decades of cybersecurity defense expertise. Virsec’s patented Trusted Execution™ technology protects networks by detecting deviations in software applications caused by cyber intrusions. Together, they can help bridge the gap for global government and commercial customers, including critical infrastructure customers.
Virsec’s security platform will be included in Raytheon’s global cybersecurity offerings, with Virsec’s Trusted Execution technology, which detects deviations in application software caused by cyber intrusions, specifically in the critical infrastructure sector.
According to the Federal Times:
“Critical infrastructure ― from the electrical grid to transportation ― is under assault, and hackers are evading conventional security defenses,” said John DeSimone, vice president of cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon’s intelligence, information and services unit. “Commercial tools from companies like Virsec can help bridge the gap for our global government and commercial customers and provide effective protection against the growing cyber threat.”
By detecting software intrusions at the application level, Trusted Execution is able to block attacks in milliseconds, according to a Raytheon news release.
Tom Goodman, Raytheon’s director of international cyber business, told Defense News that his company “recognizes the fact that cybersecurity isn’t an IT problem, but an operational problem.”
When looking for companies to partner with to address these large scale threats, Raytheon was attracted to Virsec because “their capability not only looks at some of the most advanced types of threat vectors coming from different bad actors, but they also have an eye to address them from an operational perspective,” Goodman said.
So to whom is Raytheon looking to sell Virsec’s software?
Goodman declined to go into specifics, but did note Raytheon was scheduling to meet with a “national-level energy company” in the Middle East, several regional telecommunication companies in the Middle East and Europe, and one particular ministry of defense in the Asia-Pacific region concerned with China’s growing cyberthreat.
Read full Critical Infrastructure Is Under Assault article
Read full Raytheon, Virsec Form Alliance article
This release received significant additional coverage from publications including: Brilliance Security Magazine, CivSourceOnline, The Cyberwire, DefenceAlert, Defense Daily Network, ExecutiveBiz, Federal Times, Fifth Domain, Inside Defense, Military Embedded Systems, Security InfoWatch and Washington Technology.
