Hanover-based Dragos Inc., provider of asset identification, threat detection and response platform and services, has announced the acquisition of Atlanta-based NexDefense, a provider of industrial controls system (ICS) visibility technology. As part of this announcement, the company also introduced today Dragos Community Tools, a set of free assessment tools to help organizations of all sizes around the globe forge the path forward towards comprehensive ICS security.
NexDefense further developed and sold Integrity, a tool originally funded by the United States Department of Energy and developed as “Sophia” at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). NexDefense was one of the earliest and most well-known ICS security companies in the space. This acquisition further supports the company’s mission of safeguarding civilization by making ICS security tools and knowledge readily accessible to the ICS security community.
“Dragos is committed to safeguarding civilization, and central to this mission is finding ways to provide tools and resources for the entire community,” said Robert Lee, CEO and founder of Dragos. “With the acquisition of NexDefense, we can provide a free asset identification tool specifically for operators looking to start with situational awareness and enable continuous asset monitoring capabilities, thereby helping move our entire community closer to the next level of maturity in security against cyber threats.”
Dragos Community Tools provide organizations with free asset identification capabilities, an important first step to effective threat detection and response. This is especially important in ICS environments, as they can contain thousands of assets – many potentially unknown to industrial organizations – with interconnected communications. The tools include both the NexDefense product Integrity, as well as Cyberlens, an assessment tool developed by current Dragos team members before founding Dragos Inc.