ABS Group Joins Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition as One of Four New Members

As part of ongoing efforts to safeguard the United States’ critical infrastructure across sectors, the Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition (OTCC)  announced on June 8, 2022, that ABS Group has been accepted as a member. The OTCC, which was founded by Claroty, Forescout, Honeywell, Nozomi Networks and Tenable,  is a diverse group of technology vendors aimed at improving the cybersecurity of OT environments. ABS Group joins the three other companies — Network Perception, Waterfall Security, and 1898 & Co. — as the first additions to the roster since the initiative’s launch in April of this year.

"The responsibility for defending the cyber-physical front line is a shared one. Individual companies can only mitigate the risk they can see — and all too often, companies don’t have the visibility into their suppliers’ practices to account for that risk adequately," said Ian Bramson, Global Head of Industrial Cybersecurity at ABS Group. "It’s only through widespread cooperation that America’s critical infrastructure suppliers will have the insight to fight this battle adequately. The OTCC is laying the groundwork for that kind of cooperation and we’re eager to lend our experience and expertise to join them in the fight."

ABS Group has a long history of providing risk management services for critical infrastructure and will offer a unique point of view to the Coalition. As a representative of global industry-wide consulting, ABS Group will bring insight into the diverse challenges facing entities across the country’s industrial supply chain as the OTCC continues to pursue widespread, common-sense solutions to address the challenges facing OT environments today and far into the future.

The piecemeal approach to securing infrastructure for industrial applications plays right into attackers’ hands, and that’s the approach the industry has been taking for far too long. Without a set of transparent, standardized cyber hygiene practices that address the potential for compromised equipment and industrial control systems, the potential for attacks that interfere with critical operations skyrockets. When these attacks come to fruition, the companies that manage OT environments face significant repercussions and the lives and livelihoods of communities in danger.

The OTCC’s mission is to help address this problem by standardizing cybersecurity solutions across industrial supply chains to better protect critical assets from bad actors. The OTCC advocates for a balanced approach to this endeavor, dictated as much by market pressures and collaboration (despite competition) as by regulatory oversight from third parties. OTCC members aim to collaborate with government officials and industry stakeholders to develop vendor-neutral, interoperable policies and protocols for monitoring, testing, and disclosure that enhance the country’s collective defenses against ransomware and other attacks on OT environments.

About OTCC

The Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition is a diverse group of leading cybersecurity vendors dedicated to improving the cybersecurity of OT environments. Representing the entire OT lifecycle, the OT Cyber Coalition believes that the strongest, most effective approach to securing our nation’s critical infrastructure is one that is open, vendor-neutral, and allows for diverse solutions and information sharing without compromising cybersecurity defenses. The OT Cyber Coalition was founded by Claroty, Forescout, Honeywell, Nozomi Networks, and Tenable in 2022. For more information, visit www.otcybercoalition.org.

About ABS Group

ABS Group of Companies, Inc. (www.abs-group.com), through its operating subsidiaries, provides technical advisory and certification services to support the safety and reliability of high-performance assets and operations in the oil, gas and chemical, power generation, marine, offshore and government sectors, among others. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ABS Group operates with more than 1,000 professionals globally. ABS Group is a subsidiary of ABS (www.eagle.org), a leading marine and offshore classification society.