Palo Alto Networks Updates OT Security Solution

Palo Alto Networks has unveiled new enhancements in its Operational Technology (OT) Security solution.

In addition, CrowdStrike and Fortinet have formed a strategic partnership to unify endpoint and firewall protection.

With the new enhancements, Palo Alto Networks aims to help OT professionals maintain uptime across critical infrastructure systems. The enhancements provide increased resilience through ruggedized next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and secure remote access. That ensures monitoring and control remain possible even when physical access is limited.

Additionally, the solution supports service continuity by securing backup power systems and improving overall risk mitigation, the company said.

OT Security ‘Key Focus’ for Palo Alto Networks

Qiang Huang, Palo Alto Networks’ head of product management for IoT security, said OT security is a key focus area for his company.

Palo Alto Networks' Qiang Huang

“We have been closely watching major digital transformation trends, the profound evolution to OT infrastructure and the evolution of the OT threat landscape to stay ahead of the curve,” he said. “We listened carefully to our customers on their biggest challenges, and they told us that with new threat surfaces emerging from the accelerating convergence of IT and OT, and how AI is supercharging attackers, they needed help. They needed ways to protect increasingly exposed, hard-to-patch legacy and vulnerable OT assets at scale, and to extend OT security deeper into their industrial control system (ICS) networks and their industrial harsh environments. Plus, almost every customer is concerned about secure OT remote access for their employees and partners, and to their operational environments. We’re delighted to deliver on their behalf.”

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Foundationally, these new enhancements allow Palo Alto Networks partners to accelerate their delivery for OT, Huang said.

“Our platform approach embeds strong OT capabilities into our NGFWs and secure access service edge (SASE) to address a range of OT security use cases, while maintaining consistent security operations," he said. "Our partners can easily leverage their existing expertise, tools and processes to deliver new value-added services to help solve new OT security challenges for their clients. The new ruggedized NGFWs with new form factors and 5G interfaces allow partners to expand their service offerings to new OT use cases and industry segments, and reach new OT buyers.”

Palo Alto Networks already had the “most comprehensive” OT security solution on the market, as recognized by Forrester, Huang said.

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“These innovations extend that comprehensive solution and introduces the industry's only fully integrated, risk-based guided virtual patching solution for OT environments, designed to protect unpatched legacy OT assets at scale,” he said. “Powered by Precision AI, our proprietary AI system, this solution combines machine learning (ML), deep learning and generative AI to deliver advanced, real-time protection. In addition, with our platform approach, our partners can deliver multiple value-added service offerings ranging from securing OT networks and assets, securing OT remote access and securing new private LTE/5G connectivity, all with one platform, instead of learning and managing multiple products. This will help our partners to achieve a great level of efficiency and investment protection.”

CrowdStrike-Fortinet Strategic Partnership

The strategic partnership between CrowdStrike and Fortinet includes integrating AI-native endpoint security from the CrowdStrike Falcon cybersecurity platform with Fortinet’s NGFW.

The bidirectional integration of CrowdStrike and Fortinet optimizes network and endpoint security, streamlines operations, and accelerates detection and response to elusive threats across the entire enterprise environment, according to CrowdStrike. Customers and partners gain the "flexibility, visibility and security" across networks, applications and endpoints to stop breaches.

Related:Fortinet Engage Partner Program Evolves to Services Model

CrowdStrike's Daniel Bernard

“Decisive strategy and execution from industry leaders to drive innovation is what benefits customers and delivers better security outcomes,” said Daniel Bernard, CrowdStrike’s chief business officer. “CrowdStrike pioneered an AI-native platform to revolutionize endpoint security. Fortinet defines NGFW protection and network security focused on performance and efficacy. Customers benefit from using us together, partners benefit from bringing us to market together, and this strategic partnership symbiotically advances both companies' expansion strategies. We look forward to our collaboration with Fortinet.”

The CrowdStrike-Fortinet partnership provides telemetry across endpoint and network, allowing AI-powered threat protection and response, while streamlining security operations with a single, unified view, according to CrowdStrike.

“For nearly 25 years, Fortinet has set the standard for the convergence of networking and security,” said John Maddison, Fortinet’s chief marketing officer and executive vice president of products. “By bolstering our partnership with CrowdStrike, we look forward to continued collaboration and innovation as we offer customers a joint solution that resonates at scale with all market segments globally – securing the Fortune 500 to SMBs, across networks, applications and endpoints.”