Credit: Dreamstime
Precision plastic components manufacturer Sunningdale Tech has adopted BlackBerry’s autonomous prevention and always-on cyber security expertise to protect its manufacturing environment and reduce cyber risk.
Deploying BlackBerry’s managed detection and response (MDR) offering CylanceGUARD, Sunningdale Tech shared its moving beyond in-house monitoring and signature-based antivirus software and intends to ensure round-the-clock protection in its online, offline and air-gapped environments.
According to the Sunningdale Tech, the manufacturing industry and its supply chains are built around a combination of legacy operational systems (OT) and connected IT environments, and the expanding attack surface is making the sector a “lucrative and enticing” target for threat actors.
“With cyber attacks against the manufacturing industry escalating, Sunningdale Tech pivoted to a prevention-first approach to cyber security,” said Anthony Pua, the manufacturer’s CIO of Global IT.
“CylanceGUARD has been a game-changer for our company, enabling us to protect our factory floor with a lightweight agent and skilled external threat hunters that stop threats and eliminate alert noise, allowing Sunningdale Tech’s IT teams to focus on other important priorities.”
Since deploying BlackBerry’s artificial intelligence (AI) solution, which can operate offline and requires “minimal” human intervention, the company has reportedly reduced its daily security alerts from 20,000 to fewer than ten.
With the collaboration, CylanceGUARD has provided Sunningdale Tech with access to trained threat prevention experts through a subscription-based model. The solution also includes CylancePROTECT for endpoint protection (EPP) and CylanceOPTICS for endpoint detection and response (EDR), that both use the seventh generation Cylance AI engine from BlackBerry.
“In addition to minimising alert fatigue, BlackBerry lets us focus on what we do best, while they are focused on stopping attacks,” Pua added.
“BlackBerry’s expert analysts act as an extension of my team, correlating telemetry across devices and providing actionable intelligence to prevent threats across our mixed environments. This is future-proofing our organisation, as I believe IT and OT will eventually merge into a single ecosystem as manufacturers embrace Industry 4.0 and tear down the wall between the two.”
Crucially, BlackBerry has provided enhanced visibility and always-on protection against current and future cyber threats in OT environments, from ransomware to device-based attacks, citing that “lightweight clients” would also be able to operate entirely offline.
“Manufacturing has become one of the world’s most attacked industries because threat actors know traditional antivirus software and scarce IT teams can’t adequately protect complex, connected supply chains,” observed Tash Stamatelos, vice president of BlackBerry’s Security business in Asia Pacific.
“As a leader in intelligent cyber security, we are helping organisations with mixed OT and IT environments, like Sunningdale Tech, use Cylance AI and our trained cyber experts to help stop attacks, and enable a self-defending manufacturing floor.”
