IronNet and Dragos Launch Joint Initiative to Provide Integrated Cybersecurity Protection for Critical Infrastructure

Protecting the nation’s industrial sector through a joint effort to improve cybersecurity across business and operational systems. 

May 13, 2021

MCLEAN, VA — IronNet Cybersecurity, a leader in network detection and response (NDR) and real-time threat intelligence sharing, and Dragos, Inc., the global leader in cybersecurity for industrial controls systems (ICS)/operational technology (OT) environments, today announced that they are increasing the pace and depth of a new joint initiative designed to help ensure the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure through an integrated IT-OT approach to cybersecurity.  

IronNet and Dragos’s joint initiative spans their respective technical and business domains and is focused on integrating the IronNet IronDome threat intelligence sharing solution and the Dragos Neighborhood Keeper solution in order to remove barriers and enable organizations to focus on their core business and digital transformation efforts. As threats to business and operational networks increase in frequency and sophistication, this “collective defense” approach can provide organizations across public and private sectors with an effective way to defend against well organized and funded cyber-attacks.   

Tom Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company and a commissioner of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission, said, “As we highlighted in the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission report, two of the six pillars of our recommendations — Reshaping the Cyber Ecosystem and Operationalizing Cybersecurity Collaboration Between the Public and Private Sectors — emphasize the importance of collaborating to provide a better and more resilient cyber defense for our country.  IronNet and Dragos exemplify this approach with their complementary approaches to collective defense as an effective way to protect our critical infrastructure.” 

Threat actors driven to disrupt operations are eyeing vulnerabilities in the IT space as a viable entry point to OT infrastructure. Though OT infrastructure was once locked down by hardwired assets and proprietary communication protocols that were difficult to breach, the digitalization of operations has markedly increased connectivity changing the security posture of these industrial environments and making them more vulnerable.  

“As the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack demonstrates, disruptions to OT networks often result from attacks to IT systems. Dragos has seen similar ransomware attacks on OT systems. We have come together to work hand-in-hand with IronNet to ensure we’re solving customer challenges through an integrated IT-OT collective defense approach,” said Robert M. Lee, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Dragos, Inc.  

“IronNet shares a common vision with Dragos to bring a holistic cybersecurity approach to organizations in their battle against nation-state adversaries. IT security must secure the network and data on it, whether on-premise or in the cloud, without limiting business productivity, while OT security must secure the processes, people, and environments to ensure the safety, availability, and resilience of operational systems,” said IronNet Co-CEO General (Ret.) Keith Alexander. “IronNet’s mission is to defend the nation through collective defense, and the security of critical infrastructure is at the core of our commitment.” 

Dragos’s Neighborhood Keeper is a collective defense and community-wide visibility solution that provides a more effective industrial cyber defense by sharing anonymized threat intelligence at machine-speed across industries and geographic regions. . IronNet’s network detection and response (NDR) solution, IronDefense, uses behavioral analytics to detect unknown cyber threats on enterprise networks, while its IronDome solution shares anonymized threat data in real-time within a secure ecosystem, providing other community members with a new level of visibility into potential incoming threats. 

About IronNet 

Founded in 2014 by GEN (Ret.) Keith Alexander, IronNet Cybersecurity is a global cybersecurity leader that is revolutionizing how organizations secure their networks by delivering the first-ever Collective Defense platform operating at scale. Employing a number of former NSA cybersecurity operators with offensive and defensive cyber experience, IronNet integrates deep tradecraft knowledge into its industry-leading products to solve the most challenging cyber problems facing the world today. 

About Dragos, Inc  

Dragos has a global mission: to safeguard civilization from those trying to disrupt the industrial infrastructure we depend on every day. The practitioners who founded Dragos were drawn to this mission through decades of government and private sector experience.  

Dragos codifies the knowledge of our cybersecurity experts into an integrated software platform that provides customers critical visibility into ICS and OT networks so that threats are identified and can be addressed before they become significant events. Our solutions protect organizations across a range of industries, including power and water utilities, energy, and manufacturing, and are optimized for emerging applications like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT).  

Dragos is privately held and headquartered in the Washington, DC area with regional presence around the world, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Middle East. 

Media Contact 

Bruce McConnel 
Dragos Corporate Communications 
bmcconnel@dragos.com 
804.402.2229