Honeywell releases OT cybersecurity offering for commercial buildings using Acalvio deception technology

Honeywell and Acalvio Technologies launched on Tuesday an integrated solution designed to detect known and unknown zero-day attacks across operational technology (OT) environments in commercial buildings. The new offering uses Acalvio deception technology that enables deployment of an active defense approach that is primarily effective, easy to use, and enterprise scale.

Based on the Honeywell Threat Defense Platform (HTDP) powered by Acalvio deception technology, the new solution will employ sophisticated active defense that includes autonomous deception tactics to outsmart attackers and provide users with high-fidelity threat detection. The solution will also help thwart hackers and provide accurate threat detection for buildings’ OT environments. 

Acalvio’s autonomous deception technology helps to reduce attacker dwell time through early detection of advanced threats and increases security operations center (SOC) efficiency by utilizing sophisticated investigation and active threat-hunting capabilities.

The HTDP solution includes deployment and ongoing monitoring, freeing up internal security team resources. Advanced artificial intelligence makes the service easy to use and scalable. HTDP is ideal for organizations that desire advanced intrusion detection in their building network without having to install or operate complex technology, Honeywell said. HTDP can be deployed across both IT and OT environments, as either an on-premises offering or cloud service.

HTDP uses deception tactics to confuse and mislead threats away from critical assets and devices, resulting in low false alerts and a high rate of detection. The solution leads hackers to decoy assets, which appear to be valuable OT and IT devices. However, none of the devices are real and there is no access to the enterprise assets, Honeywell said. The solution makes real, critical operational devices harder to find, slowing down adversaries and helping security teams capture them faster, the company said.

The HTDP also incorporates design-, intent- and industry-specific knowledge into a seamless workflow to deploy effective deception across distributed enterprise OT networks, Honeywell said. Using specially crafted deception elements, HTDP also helps detect ransomware and even zero-day variants with precision and speed. HTDP uses advanced analytics to confirm and investigate threats.

The quantity and complexity of cyberattacks, unfortunately, are increasing every day, reinforcing the need for building owners and operators to rigorously monitor, maintain and protect their OT environments, Mirel Sehic, global director of cybersecurity, Honeywell Building Technologies, said in a media statement. “Incorporating Acalvio’s autonomous deception technology into our OT cybersecurity toolbelt provides a highly effective solution to help protect our customers’ buildings from increasingly sophisticated attacks,” he added.

“We’re excited to work with Honeywell to secure and keep building OT systems properly operating while also protecting the people and data throughout an organization,” said Ram Varadarajan, co-founder and CEO, Acalvio Technologies. “Importantly, this technology is something that can benefit every building and facility – especially those that do not have teams of cyber experts. It requires no prior knowledge of attacker tactics and can be deployed without special training or modifications to existing OT environments.”

Last August, Honeywell identified in a survey that about 27 percent of surveyed building facility managers have experienced a cyber breach of their OT systems over the last year, and 66 percent of respondents view managing OT cybersecurity as one of their most difficult responsibilities. 

Anna Ribeiro

Industrial Cyber News Editor. Anna Ribeiro is a freelance journalist with over 14 years of experience in the areas of security, data storage, virtualization and IoT.