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Cisco and Rockwell Automation have collaborated to develop a deep-packet-inspection (DPI) technology for use in industrial security appliances. This collaboration is in response to security concerns, which remain an ongoing challenge as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) continues connecting plant-floor devices to the enterprise.
Today, IT systems leverage firewalls to monitor security risks on the IT network. These IT firewalls are often not aware of the industrial protocols used on the plant floor, which limits the ability to minimize risk throughout the entire network. However, an industrial firewall with DPI technology extends visibility down to the plant floor, which enables logging of traffic patterns, and provides the opportunity for informed decision-making following a set of security policies. Users can log a range of data for its network connection or protocol, such as EtherNet/IP, including where the traffic is coming from, where it is going and with which application it is associated. While IT managers previously had this visibility, now both plant and IT managers can use this technology to more securely manage network traffic from the plant to the enterprise.
When used between industrial and cell/area zones in a Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) architecture, a plant-floor application using DPI technology has the ability to instruct a firewall to deny firmware downloads to a controller. This helps guard against tampering with firmware and helps protect the integrity of the operation. Only an authorized user would be able to conduct the download.
Through the strategic alliance collaboration between Rockwell Automation and Cisco, manufacturers can leverage the sharing of security best practices from the IT space made available for the plant floor and industrial environment. DPI technology will be brought to market in industrial network devices from both Rockwell Automation and Cisco in 2016.
Keywords: Deep-Packet-Inspection (DPI), Industrial Security, Industrial Firewall, Cell/Area Zones, Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE), ARC Advisory Group.