Johnson Controls, Nozomi build Smart Building cybersecurity partnership
Johnson Controls, a provider of building control systems, has a new partner in the cybersecurity battle. The company has partnered with Nozomi Networks, an OT (operational technology) and IoT (Internet of Things) security provider, and will include its technology in its OpenBlue platform.
Johnson Controls also announced that it has taken a financial stake in the company as part of Nozomi’s Series D round in 2021. Porsche, Honeywell and Telefonica were among the partners publicly listed as investors at the time.
“Johnson Controls is at the forefront of digitizing the built environment through our innovative OpenBlue platform, and we are continuously looking for opportunities to maximize safety, improve efficiency and ensure business continuity,” said Vijay Sankaran, chief technology officer, Johnson Controls. “We’re proud to offer Nozomi Networks’ leading threat assessment toolset as this digital transformation is made.”
In June 2022, Johnson Controls acquired Tempered Networks to secure building data from the edge to the cloud. The acquisition gave the company Zero Trust security technology for its OpenBlue platform to enable autonomous buildings that are resilient to cyberattacks.
Now Tempered Networks’ Airwall technology will be augmented by Nozomi Networks’ capabilities by providing additional cybersecurity threat monitoring and visibility features and functionality, the company said in a statement.
Nozomi’s latest partnership news comes as the risk of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure continues to grow. According to Nozomi’s latest security report, there were over 650 vulnerabilities identified from July through December of 2021 — a 21% increase over the previous six months.
Nozomi’s report noted that the supply chain seems to be the biggest opportunity for cyberattacks because they can quickly spread across services and products to the end-user. These attacks are related to ransomware and ransomware as a service attack which sees an upward trend globally.
Earlier this year, global software and technology organization Emerson teamed up with Nozomi. Under the terms of the agreement, Emerson will offer Nozomi Networks’ advanced solutions for industrial control system cyber resiliency and real-time operational visibility to customers worldwide.
Article Topics
building controls | cybersecurity | IT/OT | Johnson Controls | Nozomi Networks | smart building
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