Siemens and Alphabet subsidiary Chronicle protect energy infrastructure

Siemens AG has entered into a partnership with Chronicle, a subsidiary of Alphabet. The two parties will work together to secure systems in the energy infrastructure industry.

The plan is for Siemens to use Chronicle’s Backstory network security platform to provide greater visibility into a power company’s IT systems, writes Silicon Angle. Siemens is going to combine Backstory with its own security tools.

Chronicle Backstory

Chronicle was founded in 2018 by Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The company is developing a cybersecurity intelligence and analytics platform with techniques that Google itself uses. Launched in March this year, the Backstory platform is a Chronicle cloud service where companies can upload, store and analyze their security telemetry. In this way, companies can detect and investigate possible attacks.

When Backstory was launched, Chronicle CEO Stephen Billet described the platform as “Google Photos for business network security”. He also said it was “the first global security telemetry platform designed for a world that thinks in petabytes”. And that is the scale that the energy industry needs if it is to avert the threats.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) grows, more devices and components are connected to the Internet. This all generates large amounts of data that can be of interest to cybercriminals. The fact that this is a lucrative market for security companies is therefore not surprising.

Collaboration

Chronicle is a new player in the security market, but by working together with Siemens it has a large presence in the energy sector. Chronicle’s platform, combined with Siemens’ knowledge and technology, can enable companies to adapt to constantly changing attacks.

“We can give customers the confidence to take action,” said Leo Simonovich, head of Siemens Industrial Cyber and Digital Security. “We’ve seen an exponential growth in cyber attacks. That could lead to closures. The energy sector is challenged by visibility and increased connectivity.”