ABS Consulting launches cybersecurity offering to combat increasing global attacks on operational technology networks

Source: press release, 29 April 2021

An integrated single solution designed by OT experts for industrial networks manages, monitors, detects and defends against growing cybersecurity threats that target operations
An integrated single solution designed by OT experts for industrial networks manages, monitors, detects and defends against growing cybersecurity threats that target operations (illustration: ABS)

ABSG Consulting Inc. (ABS Consulting), a global operational risk management company, has launched an integrated new cybersecurity service designed to help organisations monitor, manage and reduce the growing threat of Operational Technology (OT) cyber-attacks.

“The digital front line is expanding to the OT environment, impacting today’s industrial systems and equipment critical to high performing operations, business reputation and safety,” says Ian Bramson, Global Head of Cybersecurity from ABS Consulting. “This is a new area with low maturity and high risk. As digitalisation expands so do the risks of a system breach or cyber-attack.”

The solution is designed to deliver effective support to a wide range of industry sectors, including power plants, wind farms, oil rigs, platforms to ships, pipelines and industrial manufacturing. The new Cybersecurity Managed Services developed by ABS Consulting helps companies reduce cybersecurity risks across multiple facilities and assets by 24/7 monitoring of critical infrastructure and OT networks for cyber threats.

Bramson says, “OT cybersecurity requires specialised skills and experience. Traditional Informational Technology (IT) solutions do not work in these environments. Our service is a native OT solution designed specifically for industrial networks. Most organisations do not have adequate visibility into these systems to understand cyber vulnerabilities and activity. Our managed services solution gives them both visibility and control over these increasing risks.”

The service offering improves awareness and supports decision making for industrial control systems and networks by delivering insights across a company’s digital ecosystem using OT domain expertise, and IT/OT integration included in a single user platform, which proactively monitors and manages a range of key issues:

  • Enables cybersecurity risk capabilities to identify systems, assets and data – capabilities that, when disrupted, pose risks to people, operations and the environment.
  • Implements risk control processes and measures to assist with contingency planning and continuity of operations.
  • Detects a cyber event at any time. Technology that never sleeps.
  • Provides cybersecurity resilience to programs, operations and services critical to business success and performance.
  • Supports the fast restoration of an organisation’s systems for safe operations in line with a company’s disaster recovery plans.

“Services are tailored to a customer’s operation, and our cutting-edge technologies and a state-of-the-art Industrial Security Operations Center (ISOC) allows us to identify and mitigate attacks in real-time,” says Dennis Hackney, ABS Consulting’s Director of Cybersecurity Product Development. “We can tell you where there’s a threat and where the bad guys are breaching your systems, and even how fast they are penetrating the gaps in a system. We can tell you what changes they are making and provide immediate remedy to the threats.”

To discover the range of benefits delivered by the new ABS Consulting Cybersecurity Managed Services visit www.abs-group.com/mspcyber.