One consequence of digitalization is the growing connectivity of industrial plants. On the one hand, this increasing networking enables companies to make their production processes more flexible and efficient, while cutting costs. On the other, it also increases the risk of cyber attacks. Production processes in particular are a frequent target for attacks and therefore require an especially high level of protection.   

The SIMATIC Systems Support has a virtual environment with more than 500 virtual machines and a fully networked automation environment. Also, they have access between Siemens Networks (SNX) and special test networks. Hence, a firewall service with next-Generation functionality was needed.

The solution was a Industrial Next Generation Firewall including: 

• Industrial Security Monitoring installation and management 
• Perimeter Firewall installation and management 
• Network Security consulting resulting in VLAN network separation

With over 100 employees Siemens SIMATIC Systems Support is a prime example of a Siemens internal testing environment for customer projects. This is largely a virtualized environment with a large number of servers and hardware components. This includes S7-1500, S7-1200 and the use of TIA-Portal and WinCC.