Honeywell Enhances New Cybersecurity Solutions to Portfolio

Honeywell and Acalvio Technologies have launched a new solution designed to detect known and unknown (zero-day) attacks across the operational technology (OT) environments in commercial buildings. Honeywell Threat Defence Platform (HTDP) powered by Acalvio leverages advanced active defence, including autonomous deception techniques to outsmart attackers, and offers high fidelity threat detection. Because of its ability to detect and control attacks, Honeywell’s technology is recommended by governments and cybersecurity standard bodies.

Building OT settings have traditionally relied on preventative technologies and passive detection, such as perimeter security and network traffic analysis, to safeguard systems. Nonetheless, according to a recent Honeywell Building Technologies survey, more than one-quarter (27 percent) of surveyed facility managers experienced a cyber breach of their OT systems in the previous 12 months. Building systems are still being attacked by threat actors with both targeted and ransomware attacks. These attacks have the potential to disrupt the functioning of vital businesses that keep society running, such as utilities, data centers, hospitals, and airports, in addition to acquiring access to private customer data.

HTDP employs deception techniques to divert threats away from critical assets and devices, resulting in low false alerts and a high detection rate. The solution leads threat actors to decoy assets that appear to be valuable OT and IT devices; however, none of the devices are real, and access to business assets is denied. The technology makes real, critical operational devices more difficult to find, slowing adversaries and assisting security teams in seizing them more quickly.

Mirel Sehic, Global Director, Cybersecurity, Honeywell Building Technologies, said, “The quantity and complexity of cyberattacks unfortunately are increasing every day, reinforcing the need for building owners and operators to rigorously monitor, maintain and protect their OT environments. Incorporating Acalvio’s autonomous deception technology into our OT cybersecurity toolbelt provides a highly effective solution to help protect our customers’ buildings from increasingly sophisticated attacks.”

Ram Varadarajan, Co-Founder, CEO, Acalvio Technologies, said, “We’re excited to work with Honeywell to secure and keep building OT systems properly operating while also protecting the people and data throughout an organization. Importantly, this technology is something that can benefit every building and facility – especially those that do not have teams of cyber experts. It requires no prior knowledge of attacker tactics and can be deployed without special training or modifications to existing OT environments.”

The HTDP solution comprises deployment and constant monitoring, freeing up resources on the internal security team. The service is simple to use and scalable thanks to advanced artificial intelligence. HTDP is ideal for organizations that want advanced intrusion detection in their building network but do not want to deploy or operate complex technology. HTDP can be installed in both IT and OT settings as an on-premises solution or as a cloud service.

Honeywell is dedicated to making the cybersecurity equation easier for customers to understand. This new offering also assists customers in improving their resilience and business continuity efforts in order to achieve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. Honeywell’s partnership with Acalvio includes a Honeywell Ventures investment to further support the development of cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions and disruptive technologies.