Aperio Raised $4.5M to protect SCADA Networks

8 February, 2018

APERIO uses statistical physics and machine learning techniques to detect operational data forgery attempts and reconstruct the true state of industrial control systems

Michael Shalyt, CEO Aperio Systems

Aperio Systems, from Haifa, Israel, announced a strategic investment from Energias de Portugal (EDP), one of Europe’s largest utilities, who joined  the round of financing along with Data Point Capital, Siemens, Jump Capital and Scopus Ventures. The $4.5 Million in seed funding will support with the introduction of its next-generation Intrusion Prevention System for SCADA (IPS). SCADA vulnerabilities pose a major risk to industrial infrastructure, production plans and utilities. In the past it was connected to the Stuxnet malicious computer worm that hit the Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010.

Once attackers breach a critical system, the way to cause severe and long-lasting damage is to blind operators by falsifying operational sensor data. Aperio Systems’ IPS is based on Data Forgery Protection (DFP) technology to detects artificial manipulations of industrial process data. From the rate of gas flow at a petroleum refinery, to the temperature and spin rates of turbines in a power plant, or the chlorine level of water supply networks, this is the last line of defense in protecting critical assets against threats.

Identifying Attacker’s Fingerprints

“There is a global need to protect every critical control system from internal and external cyber threats and malicious actors,” said Bahram Nour-Omid, Managing Partner, Scopus Ventures. Michael Shalyt, CEO Aperio Systems (photo above) said the past year has demonstrated “without a doubt” that physical assets are the true targets of attacks against critical infrastructure. “You don’t target nuclear plant engineers to steal credit cards. Securing critical infrastructure has tangible financial, social, and even life-or-death implications. We are heartened to see the heavy industries are gaining awareness of the threats and taking them seriously.”

APERIO Systems uses statistical physics and machine learning techniques to detect operational data forgery attempts and reconstruct the true state of industrial control systems in real time. It passively plugs into the existing monitoring systems. Using proprietary algorithms, APERIO identifies unique fingerprints in reported signals, validating their integrity and authenticity. Based on those fingerprints, it can alerts and pinpoints the attacked equipment and forged process data. This unique capabilities is based on machine learning algorithms trained to detect artificial manipulations of process data.

Military Cybersecurity Knowhow

The company is led by a veteran executive team with roots in the elite units of the Israel Defense Forces and top cybersecurity and industrial companies: The CTO Yevgeni Nogin is a graduate of the elite “Talpiot” IDF military academy and served over 9 years in elite intelligence and R&D units of the IDF. Michael Shalyt is a graduate of the “Psagot” IDF academic program and served as leading researcher and team leader in the elite 8200 unit. Prior to joining APERIO Systems, he led the malware research team at Check Point.

The Head of Algorithms, Itay Baruchi, has served as director of Industrial MRI, where he worked closely with several of the biggest oil and gas drilling companies. Before that, he founded and served as CTO of Pythagoras Solar. The Head of Development, Shahar Asher, is leading the company’s software development. He has held several development positions in the fields of cybersecurity includinf in CloudLock, that was acquired by Cisco.

More information: www.aperio-systems.com

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Posted in: Cyber , News , Security

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