Trailblazers in IT security
More than 70.000 persons in over 26.000 households rely on it: energy, gas and clean water 24/7, public transportation systems arriving securely on time, the garbage gets collected every week and for leisure there are public swimming pools and an indoor ice rink. All this and more is provided by the municipal works Aschaffenburg, Germany. They focus on services for energy, water supply, disposal, public transportation and leisure. Failure of their critical infrastructure for energy and water supply would have severe effects on all inhabitants of the lower Main region in Bavaria. Hence, it goes without saying that the municipal works Aschaffenburg have only the highest quality standards that could not be met without a fully functional IT. To protect the IT of critical infrastructures is the goal of the EU-funded project CyberWiz. CyberWiz aims at the development and implementation of the software securiCAD® and corresponding consulting services. The software securiCAD® is manufactured by the Stockholm-based company foreseeti AB. It has the ability to model complex networks and to proactively simulate Cyber-attacks to the network. It discovers all vulnerabilities, the critical attack paths and estimates the time it takes an attacker to seriously compromise the security of the network. The algorithms within securiCAD® are based on several years of research and development both at foreseeti and at the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm. securiCAD® was entitled “disruptive technology” by the EU commission, which funds the development of the software under the Horizon 2020 program. The German IT security specialist apsec, based in Großwallstadt, is the project coordinator and is responsible for the development of the consulting concept and for the conducting of several pilot projects with customers from the energy sector within CyberWiz. The first milestone is now reached with having finished the project in Aschaffenburg, which is only 10 kilometers from Großwallstadt and whose municipal works are the largest energy provider in the region. Dr. Michael Konik, who, as Head of IT, was responsible for the project for the Aschaffenburg municipal works, is convinced by the outcome of the project: “Being a fully-trained mathematician I liked the idea of a scientific simulation approach from the start. Hence, the Aschaffenburg municipal works gladly agreed when apsec offered to investigate the security of our network in this pilot project. It proved really useful to be provided with a “big picture” of our network security. In particular, I like the possibility to proactively check how future alterations to our network may affect its security. The cooperation with apsec was very satisfying and I am sure this wasn’t the last project we conducted together.”. CEO Frank Schlottke from apsec, one of the masterminds in the CyberWiz project, adds: “We are more than happy about the pilot project with the Aschaffenburg municipal works. It provided us with valuable insights into the IT infrastructure of an energy and water provider. Dr. Konik was a very constructive partner and provided us with very good feedback and useful hints how to further improve our performance. I am deeply thankful to him.”.
Keywords
Cyberwiz, IT security, securiCAD, critical infrastructure, apsec, foreseeti, disruptive technology
Countries
Germany, Sweden