Frost & Sullivan recognizes Waterfall Security Solutions for Customer Value Excellence through Technology Convergence for 4th consecutive year

For the fourth year in a row, Frost & Sullivan has recognized Waterfall with a Customer Value Excellence through Technology Convergence award.

This honor is awarded to a company that exhibits exceptional technology convergence impact and customer impact, proving the company’s ability to have consistent growth potential, ROI benefits and a significant impact on the security industry.

Ashay Abbhi, senior analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said, “Frost & Sullivan considers Waterfall’s pioneering solution to potentially become the standard in cybersecurity across industries, brought about by its disruptive technological convergence to secure the most vulnerable and sensitive point of attack – the data.”

Highlighted in the solution assessment is Waterfall’s Application Data Control (ADC) solution, which provides fine-grained policy controls for data in motion through Waterfall’s Unidirectional Security Gateway and FLIP products. The ADC add-on provides in-line controls for data movement, content restrictions, in-line anti-virus scanning and other/custom scanning and verification of files, BLOBs and any suspect or sensitive content. ADC controls can be applied to support data exfiltration prevention as well as powerful controls over data permitted back into critical networks.

“Waterfall enables safe IT/OT integration while ensuring the amalgamation of data from these silos is secured and the vulnerability removed by moving the data in only one direction instead of the customary bidirectional movement,” Abbhi added.

We’re honored to have earned Frost & Sullivan’s recognition once again. This award is testament to the needs for stronger-than-firewall security solutions for industrial control systems and further validates our product and commitment to safeguarding these important assets.

To learn more about our technology and how it protects ICS, visit our Resources page.

Waterfall/Area 81 Racing Team post two SARRC wins at VIR Goblins Go to end season

The Waterfall/Area 81 Racing team ended its 2015 season with the grit and dedication we’ve come to expect, pulling out two wins as it participated in its last South Atlantic Road Racing Championship (SARRC) race. Both Area 81 F1000 cars had to move at lightning speed to prep for the “Goblins Go” race at the Virginia International Raceway after a busy three weeks racing in Daytona, Florida and Bloomingdale, Georgia.

It was a busy and successful racing season for the Area 81 team with multiple wins and several personal bests. In the final race of the season, Richard Franklin, Car 81, qualified on the outside Front Row and F1000 pole position in the first race. He was in the lead almost throughout the entire race and improved his best lap time by two seconds. However, Sunday’s race brought about recurring electrical issues as his Stohr F1000 came to a stop on the warm-up lap due to battery failure.

“Missed opportunities and mixed emotions pretty much sums up my weekend at VIR,” said Franklin. However, he added, “Improving my personal best lap time by nearly two seconds at VIR was very exciting.”

Despite being slowed by lapped traffic throughout the race, Tim Pierce, Car 18, gained three positions to finish a strong second and third overall during race 1. In race 2, he had better luck, finishing in first place for the F1000 class.

“During the race my car handled very well, but I was unable to get adequate drive out of the turns due to a slipping clutch, and I was lucky to pull out the win,” said Pierce. “My car is due for a fresh engine over the winter, so we’ll be ready come March.”

The short turnaround time between races had an effect on the Area 81 team, leaving little time to fully address mechanical difficulties. The team will be taking some time off through the holidays to make the necessary repairs to their cars and further develop their F1000’s. Stay tuned to Waterfall's blog, as well as www.Area81Racing.com and the Area 81 racing Facebook page for updates on the 2016 season.

October news roundup: U.S. tackles critical infrastructure cybersecurity

The mounting fear of inefficient critical infrastructure security set the tone for October when researchers from the U.K.-based Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London, announced nuclear power plants are at an increasingly high risk of a cyberattack. Headlines highlighted this cautionary theme throughout the month, culminating in President Obama’s criticism of the United States’ insufficient cyber defenses. As researchers and security experts continue to raise awareness of the growing threat to critical infrastructure, we’ll share them with you here:

Obama warns of power grid's lagging cyber defenses (The Hill, Oct. 30, 2015)

In a statement on Oct. 29, President Obama warned the U.S. isn’t spending enough on cybersecurity for the power grid, citing the devastation that technologically advanced countries like China could cause. In an effort to promote the need for more funding for the nation’s energy systems, Obama declared November “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month.”   

'They'd love to do damage': The FBI says ISIS wants to go after one of America's biggest vulnerabilities (Business Insider, Oct. 19, 2015)

A new report from the FBI stated ISIS hackers are attempting to attack the U.S. power grid to take down parts of the country’s energy supply. While the hackers have yet to be successful, there is increasing concern that they will purchase highly capable software on the black market that could help them cause a catastrophic power outage. 

Online Attacks on Infrastructure Are Increasing at a Worrying Pace  (The New York Times, Oct. 15, 2015)

Over the last four years, hackers have stolen code and blueprints to American oil and water pipelines and power grids. In 2014, the number of attacks on industrial control systems increased fourfold to 675,186 from 163,228 in 2013. The question now – what are hackers going to do next?

National Grid CEO Sees ‘Huge Amounts’ of Cyber-Security Threats (Bloomberg, Oct. 13, 2015)

National Grid has identified a number of attacks on the company’s computer systems coming from the Middle East and China. Fewer than five attempts have actually gotten into the system, but they’re still there, which means an increased chance of one successfully paralyzing the power grid.

Nuclear Power Plants at Huge Risk of Cyber Attack, Study Says (TechTimes, Oct. 7, 2015)

As critical infrastructure becomes more dependent on digital systems, most of the world’s nuclear power plants have failed to establish sufficient cybersecurity protocols. An 18-month-long study from the Chatham House found nuclear facilities generally are not doing enough to protect themselves from a cyberattack that could cause irreparable damage.

That said, there are significant differences between nuclear generation industries, cybersecurity regulations and security postures in different parts of the world. The report frequently paints all nuclear generators in all parts of the world with the same brush, which is not fair to those jurisdictions with strong cybersecurity programs in place. Nonetheless, the Chatham House report is detailed and worth reading.

For more industrial cybersecurity news, check out last month’s news roundup.