Customer Story - Abbott Risk Consulting
ARC and Barrier Partner to Offer Cyber Risk Assessments & Mitigation to Industrial Organisations
Abbott Risk Consulting (ARC) is an award winning, independent, safety engineering and risk management consultancy, which operates globally from its headquarters in Edinburgh, and has offices across the UK and Australia.
Established in 2002 by John Abbott, ARC has built a world-wide reputation for delivering high quality risk management solutions and consultancy services to the nuclear, defence, oil and gas, mining, renewables and transportation industries. Clients include BP, EDF, Lockheed Martin and Rolls Royce Power Engineering (RRPE).
The organisation helps these businesses to assess risks, set up their facilities, advise on the transportation of hazardous or heavy-weight goods, and carry out risk management to improve health and safety within their environments. And recently, in response to the increase in cyberattacks on industrial organisations across the globe, ARC has decided to bolster its services to also cover cyber risk.
A NEW CHALLENGE
In the last few years, the world has witnessed a rise in cyberattacks on industrial organisations from nation state threat actors and malicious cybercrime gangs. These adversaries have been taking advantage of modernisation within industrial plants, where they have been able to access their networks through connected Operational Technology (OT). They have then launched devastating cyberattacks on systems, which not only take down operations, but also impact the health and safety of employees.
ARC recognised that many of these cyber incidents also had the potential to cause physical outcomes with the safety of industrial plant staff coming directly into the firing line. This reinforced the importance of ARC helping its clients mitigate cyber risk.
THE SOLUTION
To support the new offering, the company has recently entered into a partnership with Barrier Networks, a UK-based managed security service provider (MSSP), that has a proven track record in helping industrial organisations secure their environments.
Established in 2006, Barrier Networks is an experienced cybersecurity services provider to industrial organisations. The organisation offers a portfolio of services including penetration testing, incident response and forensics, vulnerability management, threat detection and mitigation, as well as risk assessments and managed cybersecurity programs.
ARC recognised that Barrier not only had the tools and knowledge to help secure its customers, but it also had experience within the industrial sector and possessed the knowledge and ability to secure these highly complex and hazardous environments, without impacting critical services.
RESULTS
Through the partnership, Barrier Networks now works with ARC’s clients to help them conduct cyber risk assessments and manage their cybersecurity programs.
One of the biggest drivers behind the partnership was also ARC’s recognition that it is easier to mitigate and address issues within industrial environments in the early stages of projects, before things are fully operational. This means when clients are rolling out digitalisation within their plants, it is more effective to have Barrier run cyber risk assessments in the early stages, so security issues can be resolved before they cause problems This enables security to be embedded within systems, enabling risk to be mitigated.
A key concern from many of ARC’s clients has been around applying vulnerability patches and updates to critical systems because of the high risks of them causing downtime and taking systems offline. Within an industrial environment this could have catastrophic consequences, as you can’t simply just turn off oil, gas or nuclear supplies. However, these concerns have all been rectified due to Barrier’s expertise, experience and ability to manage critical updates and apply patches, without causing service interruptions or downtime. Clients are barely even aware the updates have taken place.
Since partnering with Barrier, ARC has received very positive feedback from its clients, who now have state-of-the-art security postures that can overcome the challenges that digitalisation can often introduce within their environments. This means clients are mitigating all risks that could affect their organisations, from operational, health and safety to cyber.
In the future, ARC and Barrier will continue to partner together to help more industrial organisations carry out risk assessments and risk mitigation. So, would ARC recommend working with Barrier to its peers?
“Absolutely,” concluded Vickers.