Darktrace, Garland Technology collaborate to enhance cybersecurity in complex OT environments

January 25, 2024

Cybersecurity AI firm Darktrace announced a new collaboration to help businesses protect complex industrial environments. This collaboration brings Darktrace/OT and Garland Technology‘s network visibility solutions together, offering fast, seamless deployments and more complete network visibility in operational technology (OT) environments.

Security risks in industrial environments and critical infrastructure continue to rise. The increasing monetization of OT attacks, exposure of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to open networks, and convergence with IT are heightening opportunities for threat actors. The number of industrial IoT (IIoT) devices is increasing rapidly, with the global number of industrial IoT connections forecasted to reach 37 billion in 2025 according to Juniper Research, creating entry points for adversaries and leaving major visibility gaps for security teams, who are already faced with tight budgets and personnel shortages.

Together, Garland’s Network TAPs and Aggregators and Darktrace/OT are designed to enable visibility and security across OT, IT, and IIoT networks to Purdue level 1. Purdue level 1 includes devices, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and remote terminal units (RTUs) that sit closest to the physical industrial processes.

Using Garland’s network TAP solutions with Darktrace minimizes deployment challenges with little to no additional configuration required in complex industrial environments, quickly illuminates points of IT and OT convergence, provides unidirectional traffic flow, and detects potential threats to keep data and environments secure.

Darktrace/OT uses Self-Learning AI to learn every detail of an organization’s bespoke OT systems, delivering increased visibility and detecting subtle deviations to stop threats at their earliest stages. Darktrace can also provide a unified view of both IT and OT environments, helping organizations as they navigate the convergence of IT and OT systems. As no connection to the Internet is required, Darktrace/OT functions within air-gapped or highly segmented networks without jeopardizing their integrity.

“Darktrace has applied its Self-Learning AI to protect complex OT environments since 2014, helping our customers bridge the gap between IT and OT security and enabling them to detect and respond to threats that others fail to see,” Denise Walter, chief revenue officer at Darktrace, said in a Wednesday press announcement. “Over the years, we have continued to expand the areas of the digital world that Darktrace can learn from and protect. Together with Garland Technology, we can protect an even wider and more complex set of industrial environments, helping security teams to enhance the end-user cyber resilience of critical industrial environments such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, water treatment facilities, electric utilities, food processing, and more.”

Garland Technology’s network TAP solutions create a foundation of visibility for network management, allowing secure access and monitoring of network traffic. Garland’s solutions are uniquely designed for industrial networks. When deployed, a Garland Technology network TAP will pass all network traffic from the tapped network link to the Darktrace appliance for analysis, without interrupting business operations.

Many of Garland’s TAP and Aggregator solutions include built-in data diode technology, which enforces one-way data flow from a network segment to a monitoring destination to reduce the risk of remote attacks, DDoS attacks, malware, and ransomware from external networks. When used with Darktrace/OT, this makes it easier to deploy and provides increased network visibility and confidence that network traffic is unidirectional and secured.

“Garland Technology has been involved in critical infrastructure projects since 2011 when we designed our first Data Diode TAP for a customer,” said Chris Bihary, CEO and co-founder. “Since then we’ve been building network visibility products to help provide technology like Darktrace/OT the packet level visibility needed to protect the world’s most critical assets. We’re excited about this new partnership with Darktrace to work hand-in-hand in protecting complex industrial environments around the world.”