Case Studies > Securing Global Industrial Networks with IoT: A Case Study on a Consumer Goods Company

Securing Global Industrial Networks with IoT: A Case Study on a Consumer Goods Company

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Intrusion Detection
Sensors - Temperature Sensors

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods
National Security & Defense

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Use Cases

Cybersecurity
Tamper Detection

Services

Cybersecurity Services

The Customer

Not disclosed

About The Customer

The customer is the consumer goods arm of a global conglomerate that manufactures a wide range of products, from dishwashers to jigsaws, espresso machines to hedge trimmers. The company's manufacturing sites are spread around the world, with some being in operation for decades, while others are relatively new. The company has grown in part by acquisition of smaller companies, requiring it to manage multiple vendors and a range of approaches to IT and OT security. The company has a complex operational technology environment, with a multitude of devices and systems, and it also manages remote access for a multitude of third-party contractors.

The Challenge

The consumer goods arm of a global conglomerate, manufacturing a wide range of products, faced significant challenges in securing its operational technology (OT) environment. The company's manufacturing sites are spread globally, with some being decades old and others relatively new. The company had to manage a multitude of devices and systems, along with remote access for numerous third-party contractors, which added to the complexity of its industrial cybersecurity posture. The company was relying on traditional, IT-centric security tools that were incompatible with its OT environment. This, along with the prevalence of legacy systems, inconsistent documentation of OT assets, and diverse geographies and local practices, made gaining full visibility into its OT environment a daunting task. The company also struggled with unmonitored remote access and misconfigurations, which led to downtime. Furthermore, the company's growth through acquisitions resulted in a patchwork of systems from multiple vendors, complicating its IT and OT security. The company also lacked OT anomaly detection capabilities, which are crucial for quick response to operational disruptions.

The Solution

The company chose and deployed The Claroty Platform across its manufacturing operations in over 75 factories in eight countries. The platform components utilized include Continuous Threat Detection (CTD) for full-spectrum OT asset visibility, continuous security monitoring, and real-time risk insights with zero impact on operational processes and underlying devices. Secure Remote Access (SRA) was used to safeguard industrial from threats introduced via unmanaged and unmonitored access by remote users, including employees and third-party vendors. The Enterprise Management Console (EMC) was used to simplify management overall, consolidating data from across The Claroty Platform and providing a unified view of assets, activities, and alerts across multiple sites. The platform also integrates seamlessly via EMC with IT security infrastructure. After achieving full visibility and baselining the company’s OT environment, CTD enabled real-time anomaly and threat detection, vulnerability monitoring, and ongoing risk assessments. SRA eliminated direct interactions between remote users and network assets by enforcing a secure, single-access pathway for remote diagnostics and maintenance operations.

Operational Impact

The deployment of The Claroty Platform resulted in comprehensive and unified visibility across the company’s entire OT environment, with the discovery and profiling of all OT assets, many of which had been previously unknown to the company. This was achieved without any downtime or operational disruption. The platform enabled real-time anomaly and threat detection, vulnerability monitoring, and ongoing risk assessments. The platform's Root Cause Analysis and Risk Scoring features also enabled each of the company’s SOCs to easily and effectively prioritize and triage the resulting alerts. The Secure Remote Access component of the platform enforced a secure, single-access pathway for remote diagnostics and maintenance operations, leading to a dramatic increase in third-party risk, as well as security best practices across the entire OT environment. The platform's auditing capabilities helped the company to improve change management by preventing undocumented and unauthorized changes within the environment.

Quantitative Benefit

Deployment across more than 75 factories in eight countries
Achieved full visibility into the company’s OT environment
Enabled real-time anomaly and threat detection, vulnerability monitoring, and ongoing risk assessments