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Cisco Cyber Vision targets industrial IoT security

Cisco Cyber Vision is the networking company's latest product for industrial IoT security. The technology is based on software Cisco acquired last year when it bought Sentryo.

Cisco has rebranded its recently acquired software for protecting industrial control systems and launched integrations between the product and the company's network management and access control systems.

Cisco launched Cisco Cyber Vision, formerly ICS CyberVision, at the company's European user conference in Barcelona, Spain. The company also announced at Cisco Live integration between Cyber Vision and its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and DNA Center management console.

Cisco is bolstering its security systems for industrial control systems (ICS) as cyberattacks against them increase. ICS devices, such as programmable logic controllers and remote terminal units, are used to manage operational equipment within oil and gas facilities and electric and water utilities. State-associated hackers target the gear to further economic, political and national security agendas.

Cisco acquired ICS CyberVision last year when the company bought the French firm Sentryo. ICS CyberVision provided companies with intelligence that helped to identify threats to ICS gear.

CyberVision gathered information on ICS devices through sensors that collected data from device-to-device network communications. Through analysis of the gathered data, CyberVision provided anomaly detection and immediate threat detection.

Cisco Cyber Vision
A view of intelligence from Cisco Cyber Vision

Cisco Cyber Vision

Cisco Cyber Vision provides the same capabilities as the original software while offering the option of adding features through the integration of ISE and DNA Center. Cyber Vision runs on the Cisco IOx network operating system that powers the vendor's industrialized switches and routers.

DNA Center uses ISE to enforce security and device access policies across industrial IoT networks. The instructions created by IT teams define communications for groups of equipment. They also tell network components to take specific actions to isolate devices operating abnormally.

Cisco has been improving DNA Center's capabilities for IoT environments. In 2018, for example, the company added to DNA Center hundreds of device profiles for gear found in manufacturing, medical institutions and building systems.

Along with the Cisco Cyber Vision, the company introduced software that maps unstructured data into a structured format for specific applications used in industrial operations. The new technology also runs on IOx hardware.

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