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February 6, 2018

Business Update: Forcepoint Global Governments & Critical Infrastructure

Sean Berg President of Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure
Critical Infrastructure Cross Domain Solutions Data Guard Financial Security Government Agencies

Forcepoint continues its focus on the unique needs and challenges found in the most highly regulated and mission-critical sectors. After over 20 years of protecting US and Five-Eyes critical classified information and networks, Forcepoint expanded the government business charter to bring human-centric cybersecurity to governments around the world in 2017.

As we enter 2018, Forcepoint continues to evolve our human-centric cybersecurity view through the integrated Human Point System portfolio. The “start anywhere” portfolio provides each customer a very personalized path to the most robust data and network protection available today. With this evolution we are also expanding the Global Governments business to include a focus on the Critical Infrastructure market by renaming the business: Forcepoint Global Governments & Critical Infrastructure.

The industries within Critical Infrastructure, while very diverse in their individual missions, all share commonalities in the need to further increase security by segmenting their Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) environments while continuing to provide assured communications between the environments. Leveraging Forcepoint’s pedigree of protecting the most high-consequence Defense and Intelligence missions around the globe with its Cross Domain Solutions suite, which allows secure connectivity between the Internet and the government’s segmented classified networks, uniquely positions us to meet the cybersecurity challenges faced by Critical Infrastructure customers.

Forcepoint Data Guard – the newest addition to the Cross Domain Solutions portfolio – is designed to meet these new cybersecurity challenges. Forcepoint Data Guard is built on a multilevel-capable operating system that enables high assurance network separation and flow control. By delivering byte-level deep content inspection, data validation and filtering, Forcepoint Data Guard can be tailored to meet the specific security policies, requirements and risks of each Critical Infrastructure customer.

Human Point System for Critical Infrastructure

Many Critical Infrastructure environments are often an interconnected blend of IT and OT such as SCADA and other Industrial Control Systems that are the foundation that keep our economies functioning and critical in the sensitive information they transact. Historically these sectors (e.g., critical manufacturing, energy utilities, and oil & gas) have relied on “security through obscurity” or on basic cybersecurity solutions resulting in significant risk exposure as the threat landscape has evolved and expanded.

However, they all require the ability to efficiently and securely share information and data, while ensuring that information and data are protected, shared with the right machines and people with assurance of integrity.

Below are two use cases that illustrate how customers are applying the Human Point System in their Critical Infrastructure environments - Financial Services and Industrial Control for electricity - today.

 

USE CASE #1: Financial Services

  • PROBLEM: All users, regardless of function, operate on their corporate internal network such as IT and trading activities.
  • OBJECTIVE: Due to the sensitive financial data to which the users have access, the corporation is beginning a user activity monitoring initiative with a focus on risk adaptive protection and user behavioral analytics. They are also segmenting or isolating the sensitive, business critical functions onto separate networks; such as the trading activities from the company’s IT business network.
  • HUMAN POINT SYSTEM: Risk adaptive protection (Forcepoint DLP, Forcepoint UEBA, Forcepoint Insider Threat) runs on both networks providing monitoring and enforcement controls to protect data based on the calculated behavioral risk level of users and the value of the data accessed. In order to maintain a holistic view of user activity in each separate network, the data is sent through the cross domain transfer guard (Forcepoint Data Guard) to inspect and validate the data before moving to the IT network for analysis and investigation. The Data Guard aggregates all user activity data for a holistic enterprise view from a single dashboard without exposing other data within the trading network. This also enables automated policy modifications across networks allowing the entire enterprise security to adapt to user behavior everywhere they work.

USE CASE #2: Industrial Control System: Power

  • PROBLEM: Power substations for manufacturing facilities are typically isolated from the SCADA IP network – making them secure but not very efficient. Manual processes are required to access and adjust power usage information, generation/distribution settings, and meter feedback.
  • OBJECTIVE: Enable controlled data to flow securely between the substation and SCADA systems to increase efficiencies and eliminate manual processes.
  • HUMAN POINT SYSTEM: Including a cross domain transfer guard (Forcepoint Data Guard) in the architecture enables secure automated, machine-to-machine communication between meters and substation. The guard validates all data transfers at the application/data layer. Only valid commands and data sets required for operations are allowed. Any data transaction that does not explicitly meet the Data Guard security policy is audited and rejected (e.g., writes to the meters are blocked). With Forcepoint Data Guard in place, automated bi-directional communications are securely enabled allowing for the elimination of manual processes and increased data security and reliability. 

Forcepoint Global Governments & Critical Infrastructure has more than 20 years of experience supporting our customers’ most high-consequence missions from all vantage points. At the core of our business is protecting data and systems while enabling mission-critical communications – both human and machine – ultimately protecting the people and systems at the core of global and economic security.

To learn more about Forcepoint’s Human Point System and how to find the right starting point for your environment please contact the Global Governments & Critical Infrastructure team directly: G2BDTeam@Forcepoint.com.

Sean Berg

Sean Berg

President of Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure

Sean Berg is the President of Global Governments and Critical Infrastructure for Forcepoint, carrying its P&L responsibility and leading the growth strategy. He is expanding Forcepoint's leadership in the cross domain government security markets and delivering capabilities across its human-...

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About Forcepoint

Forcepoint is the leading user and data protection cybersecurity company, entrusted to safeguard organizations while driving digital transformation and growth. Our solutions adapt in real-time to how people interact with data, providing secure access while enabling employees to create value.
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