ForeScout partners with National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence

ForeScout announced it has been selected to participate in a landmark IoT security research project with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) to help demonstrate security strategies and best practices for U.S. critical infrastructure operators and key economic sectors.

“As a strategic security vendor to defense and civilian federal government organizations, ForeScout is a valued resource for NIST and other influential research agencies engaging the private sector on today’s greatest cybersecurity challenges,” said Wallace Sann, vice president of global systems at ForeScout. “Working with the NCCoE, ForeScout offers insights to leading government and industry experts to help shape important security strategies and provide guidance for managing IoT risks. ForeScout’s latest engagement with NIST continues the company’s reputation as a trusted partner in the public sector.”

Building on ForeScout’s success with the NCCoE’s Energy Sector Asset Management (ESAM) project that helps energy industry stakeholders gain visibility of industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT), ForeScout is now engaged in the following projects:

With the rise of devices expected to reach 29 billion by 2020, the NCCoE is focusing on new approaches to prevent IoT and other non-traditional connected equipment from being hijacked into destructive botnets, such as those created with the Mirai malware. ForeScout is helping the NCCoE with the Mitigating IoT-Based DDoSproject to create a security platform using existing network infrastructure to visualize and block malicious commands that take control of connected devices. ForeScout’s proven track record of detecting, profiling and classifying devices – while enforcing security policies – enabled the company to meet the project’s selection criteria.

Technology significantly improves patient care and treatment, but it increases cybersecurity concerns for hospitals and equipment makers. Healthcare providers rely on Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) to electronically share X-ray and other diagnostic data, but are susceptible to risks due to multiple touch points across physicians’ offices, facilities and equipment. ForeScout is a collaborator in the NCCoE’s Securing Picture Archiving and Communication System project to develop a solution that helps healthcare organizations implement more secure PACS technology with stronger controls.

Hotels, resorts and conference centers increasingly rely on IoT devices to centrally manage campus and building amenities, personalize guests’ stays and enable transformative partnerships. In hotels, Property Management Systems (PMS) connect network and physical systems to manage billing, revenue, loyalty programs, physical access, safety and business intelligence analytics. A compromise of any connected system into a PMS can trigger costly downtime, data exposures and compliance issues. The industry’s PMS assets are complex to secure because of their vast, diverse attack surface and necessary third-party access. ForeScout and other project collaborators are helping the NCCoE tackle this challenge by applying network segmentation, point-to-point encryption, data tokenization, multifactor authentication and user behavior analytics as part of the NCCoE’s Securing Property Management Systems project.