News

Microsoft's CyberX Acquisition Boosts Security of Azure IoT Lineup

• By Kurt Mackie
• June 22, 2020

Microsoft this week announced its acquisition of Waltham, Mass.-based CyberX for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2013, CyberX makes a security platform for Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) industrial systems. CyberX explained that its team will be under the business unit managed by Yuval Eldar, Microsoft's general manager of IoT security. Eldar formerly served as the founder and president of Secure Islands, another company that was acquired by Microsoft.

Other CyberX personnel are joining Microsoft and will continue to service the product.

"CyberX's founders will join Microsoft and the platform will continue to be enhanced and supported by CyberX personnel," CyberX's announcement explained. "In addition, Microsoft is committed to the channel and will continue working with CyberX's strategic reseller and technology partners worldwide. The CyberX platform will continue to be available in a hybrid model supporting both cloud-connected and air-gapped networks."

The agentless CyberX security platform is already integrated with Microsoft's "Azure IoT stack, Azure Security Center for IoT, and Azure Sentinel, the first SIEM with native IoT support," according to a CyberX announcement of the acquisition. The integrated solution is currently available from Microsoft's Azure Marketplace, as described here.

Microsoft explained in its announcement that it already provides Azure security solutions for IoT implementations. However, its customers still have issues in a couple of areas, namely:

1. Giving customers visibility into what IoT devices are already connected to their networks.
2. Managing the security on existing IoT devices (referred to as "brownfield devices") that have been historically difficult due to a myriad of custom protocols.

The intention behind the CyberX acquisition is to improve those security aspects in Microsoft's products. 

"With CyberX, customers can discover their existing IoT assets, and both manage and improve the security posture of those devices," Microsoft's announcement explained. "With CyberX, customers can see a digital map of thousands of devices across a factory floor or within a building and gather information about their asset profile and vulnerabilities."

In addition, when CyberX technology is used with Azure Sentinel, Microsoft's security information and event management (SIEM) solution, it'll be possible "to identify threats that span Operational Technology- and IT-converged networks that were previously challenging to detect," Microsoft explained.