In 2015, Stormshield - a European leader in the cybersecurity market - and Schneider Electric - the global specialist in energy management and automation - started pooling their areas of expertise in order to raise awareness about cybersecurity issues among industrial companies and help them take steps to protect their IT and OT systems. Stormshield and Schneider Electric now ensure data flow control and governance for three major industrial companies.
The interconnection of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) is a source of new opportunities as well as new challenges for the industrial sector. With increasingly automated and robotic supply chains, factories are becoming more and more connected. This openness to external data flows inevitably leads to new risks.
For over two years, Stormshield and Schneider Electric have been engaged in a joint effort to respond to these industrial security issues. Their complementary areas of expertise – for Stormshield in network, workstation, and server protection and for Schneider Electric in operational technology – has enabled them to develop a product suited to any industrial infrastructure.
“Schneider Electric helped us build knowledge and skills on the industrial side. Pooling our areas of expertise now enables us to offer the industrial sector a unique cybersecurity product. The offer provides industrial companies with a comprehensive, proactive protection solution, allowing them to serenely transition into the Industry 4.0 era”, says Pierre Calais, chief executive of Stormshield.
This partnership resulted in Stormshield developing Sni40, its “hardened” industrial firewall specifically adapted to the security needs of IT and OT systems.
Schneider Electric helped Stormshield get a better grasp of industrial protocols, fully understand this sector and its constraints, and evaluate the device’s overall performance. For its part, Stormshield provided Schneider Electric with a better understanding of network and workstation security issues.
Well-known in the industrial sector, Schneider Electric also presented Stormshield solutions to its customers. Thanks to this initiative, Stormshield solutions are currently deployed in three major companies in the food-processing (dairy), transportation (airport), and electric power generation industries.
“Partnering with Stormshield was an important stage of our development in the cybersecurity market. In doing so, we have become the leading integration company in compliance with ANSSI standards for securing industrial installations. Our partnership embodies knowledge transfer, and these first deals strengthen our confidence in the commercial potential of the ever-maturing industrial sector”, says Yann Bourjault, Director of Cybersecurity at Schneider Electric France.
