Siemens Energy unveils AI-based industrial cybersecurity service

Siemens Energy announced a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based industrial cybersecurity service, Managed Detection and Response (MDR), powered by Eos.ii, to help small and medium-sized energy companies defend critical infrastructure against cyberattacks.

MDR’s technology platform, Eos.ii, leverages AI and machine learning methodologies to gather and model real-time energy asset intelligence, which enables Siemens Energy’s cybersecurity experts to monitor, detect, and prevent attacks.

Using proprietary detection technologies from Siemens Energy, MDR is able to collect raw information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) data from across an industrial operating environment, and then translate and contextualize it in real time. This provides a unified picture of anomalous behavior for defenders with actionable insights to stop attacks.

With its unified OT and IT data stream, MDR’s Eos.ii technology platform uses AI and digital twin technology to compare billions of real-time data points against a correctly functioning asset. This provides context for Siemens Energy’s analysts to determine not only which events are abnormal, but which are consequential. The technical achievement of unified data streams and machine learning make an unprecedented platform for targeted, in-depth analysis.

Siemens Energy’s MDR solution addresses the energy industry’s need for more sophisticated solutions to put security experts ahead of attackers as each digitally connected energy asset represents a new, possible vulnerability for attackers to strike. Energy companies and utilities are increasingly becoming a prime target for cyberattacks by state and non-state actors launching sophisticated scatter shot, sleeper strike and ransomware attacks against energy and critical infrastructure in broader geo-political or adversarial conflicts.

Last year, the Ponemon Institute and Siemens Energy conducted a joint study surveying global utilities to assess the industry’s readiness to address growing threat of cyberattacks. The study found that 64% of respondents said that sophisticated attacks are a top challenge and 54% of those surveyed expected an attack on critical infrastructure in the next 12 months. Additionally, 25% of respondent reported being impacted by mega-attacks with expertise developed by nation-state actors.

Siemens Energy and the Atlantic Council hosted a webinar discussion last week.