I reported on a cybersecurity company new to me at the time last month—Mission Secure. With our schedules finally meshing, I recently talked with Jens Meggers, executive chairman. My pre-interview research further revealed that long-time contact Chet Mroz is company president. Other people I’ve know for years are also affiliated.
Publicity people fill my inbox with news from security companies. The latest trend concerns research the various companies have done. Studies invariably show that company executives lag in efforts to mitigate potential cybersecurity risks.
Most of the security firms I talk with either perform network packet sniffing looking for anomalies or they are hardware firewalls. Many are IT technologies loosely adapted to operations. Mission Secure adds capabilities including that and beyond.
Meggers told me there are new demands on the operations space. Threats have quadrupled recently and the landscape is broadening. Actors have gone from individuals to state-sponsored actors or even states themselves. The dark web contains exploits, information and technology for those bad actors who know where to look. Not to mention that the attackers are automating their activities.
Mission Secure has the capability to scan assets of its customers. Many companies can do that in order to see what devices need patches. Operations personnel find themselves swamped with patch requirement at a volume they cannot keep up with. Mission Secure takes a methodical approach.
Three steps
1. Find out what you have and identify risks
2. Who and what have access rights and why
3. Process for continuous validation, rules, define policy
I’m a fan of this process—mostly because it aligns with my training from when I first became involved with digital technology in manufacturing thanks to a VP I reported to. It fits with ideas such as those advocated by gurus such as W. Edwards Deming about process.
Here is a bit more description of Mission Secure:
Mission Secure delivers the only OT cybersecurity platform that enables complete control over your environment, including visibility, anomaly and threat detection, policy enforcement, and Level 0 signal validation.
Visibility
Discover and visualize every asset and every network connection in your OT environment.
Threat Detection
Identify unexpected or unauthorized activity, from Level 0 signals to cloud connections.
Policy Enforcement
Segment your network and enforce granular policies for true Zero Trust cybersecurity.
Signal Validation
Monitor physical process signals to detect threats and prevent system damage.
