With the evolving convergence of IT and OT networks in industrial manufacturing, cybersecurity concerns have risen likewise. Moreover, legal regulations force industrial companies to enhance cybersecurity in their processes.

To address the growing need for industrial cybersecurity solutions, Siemens has grown its cybersecurity solution portfolio. Most importantly, it has launched an all-in-one security testing suite for industrial communication networks. The SINEC Security Inspector is a software framework for active one-time scanning. This allows individual network devices, segments or the entire network infrastructure to be scanned. It brings together a selection of best-in-class security tools which are integrated into a single user interface.

Saving critical time for network inspection

“Siemens SINEC Security Inspector brings a unique enhanced testing solution to the shopfloor. Also, it enables customers to check their entire IT/OT environment including all individual components”, says Michael Metzler, Vice President Horizontal Management Cybersecurity for Digital Industries at Siemens.

In addition, Metzler said, “Customers can promptly discover risks and potential hazards which puts them in a position to swiftly mitigate cyber vulnerabilities. This results in an enormously reduced effort when inspecting industrial networks.”

As factories increasingly have different machine providers using vast vendor variety, manufacturers deal with several challenges. Particularly, in terms of network security in their plants. This includes asset identification and detection, compliance checks, malware scans, and vulnerability checks. With SINEC Security Inspector all of these can be addressed.

Open framework integrates third-party security tools

SINEC Security Inspector has been designed as an open framework. Besides offering security tools developed by Siemens it also contains tools for vulnerability management. Cybersecurity company Tenable is providing this.

Furthermore, more internal and third-party testing tools will successively be added to cover more test cases in the future. “With industrial companies transforming into digital enterprises, the importance of cybersecurity has grown tremendously in the last years,” said Metzler.

“As a reaction, the SINEC Security Inspector was initially developed to scan our own factories for vulnerabilities in networks. After years of testing and improving this tool, it is now just right for protecting any industrial and manufacturing environment.”