Cybersecurity in pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing is uniquely complex.
Legacy equipment, strict regulatory compliance, segmented networks and proprietary OT devices create significant barriers to effective vulnerability management.
This global manufacturer needed a purpose-built solution for these constraints.
Challenge: legacy OT systems hindered security visibility and control
A global pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturer operating dozens of facilities worldwide faced growing cybersecurity challenges in its manufacturing environment.
With validated systems, legacy equipment and proprietary embedded devices in geographically distributed plant, the company struggled to gain consistent visibility and control of its OT assets.
The manufacturer attempted to use traditional IT security tools, such as vulnerability scanners and antivirus software, to secure their OT environment.
The tools ended up creating operational and regulatory risks by initiating intrusive scans and unauthorised configuration changes.
The company needed a solution that could provide comprehensive vulnerability management without disrupting operations or violating compliance requirements.
Solution: extending IT-grade tools into OT environments
The manufacturer selected Rockwell Automation to meet these challenges. SecureOT Platform extended BigFix capabilities into its OT environment.
With Secure Platform Agent, the manufacturer was able to manage the range of OT devices, regardless of vendor or age, without deploying software directly onto endpoints.
Our “Think Global, Act Local” framework provided centralised reporting and analysis while enabling local remediation actions such as patching and configuration changes at the plant level.
In addition, SecureOT Managed Services supported implementation by collaborating with the manufacturer’s operations leaders to ensure alignment with regulatory and safety requirements.
Result: faster, safer security operations across global OT sites
With SecureOT Platform, the manufacturer gained visibility into all IT and OT endpoints across its segmented networks, without the need for scans.
The unified platform allowed analysts to assess and remediate vulnerabilities from a central console. This resulted in improved response times and minimal disruption to plant operations. Results included
- full coverage of legacy and proprietary assets across OT environments
- reduced time to detect and remediate vulnerabilities across sites
- no changes to endpoint architecture or impact on validated systems
- lower deployment costs and faster rollout compared to OT-specific alternatives
- minimal training is required for operations staff due to the user-friendly interface.