BlackRidge Technology rolls out identity product line for IIoT at CES
Devin Jones
General IIOTTAC-ID provides identities for authenticating network connections for equipment in critical infrastructure architectures.
Photo courtesy of BlackRidge Technology.
BlackRidge Technology International, a leading provider of next-gen cyber defense solutions, recently launched an identity-based product line for critical infrastructure and the industrial internet of things (IIoT).
At CES 2019, the company demonstrated the BlackRidge Transport Access Control (TAC) product family and a new BlackRidge TAC Identity (TAC-ID) device. TAC-ID provides an identity for authenticating network connections for new and legacy equipment in factories, hospitals and critical infrastructure architectures, and it supports the secure convergence of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) networks.
BlackRidge TAC lets organizations establish end-to-end trust by transporting identity through the stack – across already installed sensors to clouds and gateways – cost-effectively and with minimal latency added to the network.
With the increasing convergence of OT and IT environments, the challenge of securing industrial control systems (ICS) and other critical infrastructure devices with identity can now be addressed with the BlackRidge TAC-ID.
IT infrastructure and systems are evolving rapidly, driven by an increase in intelligent and connected devices—from sensors in manufacturing plants to medical devices in hospitals—that need protection from complex and treacherous threats.
As OT security has lagged, hackers are increasingly attacking ICS environments and IIoT connected devices. According to Grand View Research, the global critical infrastructure protection market should reach US$135.48 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 10.1 percent during the forecast period, with North America dominating revenue share.
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“BlackRidge TAC-ID will help our IIoT customers add more layers of security as they deploy our technology to collect sensor-based asset health data from critical equipment,” said Ian Fountain, director of technical marketing for IIoT at National Instruments. “It will be a valuable addition to the growing ecosystem of technology compatible with National Instruments’ CompactRIO systems that our customers will use to meet their ever-evolving security needs.”
BlackRidge secures IIoT devices and OT networks via patented First Packet Authentication technology, which authenticates identity and enforces security policy on the first packet of a network session. The technology blocks or redirects traffic, controls access and enables network micro-segmentation and segregation.
Operating at the network transport layer, the technology can be integrated into legacy, virtual and cloud environments to bridge gaps between brownfield OT infrastructure and latest-generation IT systems. The BlackRidge TAC-ID product line creates an identity-based access control point at the IIoT device that can be physically secure and tamper-evident while introducing minimal latency into networks or manufacturing processes.
