CRN®, a model of The Channel Company, has named Cisco as a Finalist for the 2023 CRN Tech Innovator Awards. Cisco is being acknowledged for Cisco Secure Equipment Access Plus within the Cloud Tools and Management class.
Cisco Secure Equipment Access was created to satisfy the wants of Operational Technology (OT) groups accountable for managing industrial belongings. Our prospects and companions inform us how difficult it’s to supply upkeep entry to distant belongings with out growing cybersecurity danger. Our prospects want to supply entry to crucial configuration and upgrades, with out permitting unhealthy actors to hook up with the group’s industrial tools.
Frequently, to permit distant entry, tools distributors set up their very own distant entry gateways onto their prospects’ industrial networks. This method creates three vital issues:
- It provides complexity to the community. Now there may be an extra piece of {hardware} to configure, improve, and repair when it breaks down.
- More critically, this introduces cybersecurity dangers. Frequently, the brand new vendor distant entry gateway bypasses the client’s firewall. So, IT now not has confidence that their cyber safety insurance policies are in place, and no visibility of who’s connecting to their industrial tools.
- Adding these further gateways is cumbersome, and tough to scale. Setting up level {hardware} in every buyer location is expensive, time consuming, and carries the danger of incorrect configuration.
With this in thoughts, Cisco created Secure Equipment Access. Customers can use this service to remotely configure and preserve related tools in a wide range of use circumstances from manufacturing to related roadways. The answer addresses every of the above issues simply and successfully. The software program is put in on Cisco industrial switches and routers themselves, so there are not any further level {hardware} options to handle. And as a result of it runs on the commercial networking {hardware}, IT might be assured that any entry to related tools passes by way of the IT firewall. So, the safety danger is managed as effectively.
And deployment at scale is easy, as a result of Secure Equipment Access is delivered from the cloud utilizing Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard. This implies that it’s straightforward to put in and management throughout the commercial community. And it’s straightforward to make use of, serving to to enhance operational effectivity. Remote staff merely log right into a cloud portal that grants them entry to particular units, to not the whole community. All they want is an online browser, and for superior configuration duties, they’ll use their common desktop functions. For further safety, controls can be found to make sure that staff can solely log in at pre-defined instances and multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be utilized to confirm their id.
Watch this video to be taught extra about how Cisco Secure Equipment Access helps OT enhance effectivity with out growing cybersecurity danger or complexity. And keep tuned as we share particulars of extra improvements in Secure Equipment Access and in the remaining or our industrial IoT portfolio within the coming months.
For extra insights into how DOTs can use Secure Equipment Access with Cisco’s industrial IoT community units, register for our webinar on September 14, Cybersecurity for Intelligent Roadways.
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