Honeywell’s state-of-the-art simulation labs aim to replicate how individuals might identify vulnerabilities in any system and how they could breach security measures, including office systems. By understanding the mindset of hackers through these simulations, the company can develop software solutions and create security shields, leading to timely upgrade patches, said Ashish Gaikwad, Managing Director at Honeywell Automation India.

“In these labs, we contemplate who can think about such attacks and how to prevent such attacks. We simulate two types of teams, what we call the Red team and the Blue team. The Red team breaches available networks and the Blue team defends by anticipating this breach by the Red team,” Gaikwad said.

Adding that Honeywell has been a pioneer in developing specific algorithms and cyber security software that can provide early detection of threats, he said industrial setups under the company’s surveillance can avoid malware or attacks.

“There have been multiple instances in the last decade where, when a large company is attacked, virtually their operations can come to a standstill. Because of large digitalisation and dependence on software applications to run businesses nowadays, any crippling of such systems can cause the company to come to a halt. No board would like this because it will create a negative impact on not only the operations of the company but also on the shareholder value,” said the MD, adding that cybersecurity is now being taken seriously.

Many board members across the various industries are increasingly aware of the importance of cyber security. These boards are asking the executive management to give them a specific plan for implementing cyber security and are tracking this progress. In the next three to five years, there will be a significant increase in terms of budget allocation, projects and management taking serious steps towards implementing cyber security.

“Our cyber security is very much geared towards industrial cybersecurity. We provide automation and control systems for mission-critical applications, meaning one cannot afford to shut them down; it has to run 24/7 365 days a year. To ensure these systems continue to run, there are many processes and our overall suite of cybersecurity solutions helps with this,” he said.

“Honeywell can map the vulnerability that can compromise the system — this is a consulting service we provide. We provide them phase-by-phase by giving a roadmap for implementing cybersecurity after considering their budgets as well.”

He added that the company has various applications to automatically evaluate possible holes in the network. A continuous monitoring application acts like a watchdog to continuously look at threats from external sources. A solution can control the open ports and monitor USB activities — when people use thumb drives or USB ports to plug in any device in an industrial environment, they can sometimes, without malintent, introduce strong viruses or malware that can affect the mission control and critical control systems. Honeywell also provides patch or software control management.

“And lastly, we also have a security operations centre — a single physical location through which you can monitor all your installations remotely. Companies could be physically in different geographies, but we monitor them from one location. In short, we provide the full stack of all services — the software and hardware required for an end-to-end solution.”

The company is aligned with three trends — automation, the future of aviation and energy transition. However, Gaikwad said that almost every project the company gets today — about 80 percent — will have some component of industrial cybersecurity.