Investments in automated security are a prerequisite for a secure digital economy

Market threats prevent development of automated security solutions

Our society has become almost entirely dependent on digitised processes and systems. Vital sectors such as logistics, healthcare and the manufacturing industry are transforming their business models and processes under the influence of digitalization in order to remain competitive. The downside of this digitalization is the growing number of cyberattacks. Systems are being attacked within seconds, while the average time to discover and react to a security incident typically lies in the order of weeks or even months.

We recognize a number of threats and risks in the market that prevent solid solutions:

• The complexity of ICT infrastructures is rapidly increasing and along with it the growing workload for security analysts
• A large shortage of competent and qualified cyber security experts
• The diversity of the data to be processed is increasing enormously, making it almost impossible to check all the data manually
• Insufficient possibilities to create an economy of scale
• The cyber landscape is fragmented with too many individual solutions and data silos
• A lack of interoperability (different methodologies and languages) of cyber products makes it more difficult to respond to a cyberattack in time
• There is a dependency on a relatively small group of suppliers of hardware, software and digital services and platforms from a limited number of countries.

As a result, cyber security innovations do not get up to speed and lack the real impact they need to have. This impedes the development and adoption of automated security solutions.

Holistic approach

Investing in joint cyber security expertise is therefore necessary. The key to success lies in an integrated approach and cross-sector knowledge and experience. Only through public-private partnerships between cybersecurity companies, public organizations, educational institutions and knowledge institutes we can make the difference.

The ASOP Consortium joins forces and focuses on:

• Ensure digital resilience of society and economy;
• Increase competitiveness of cybersecurity sector at global level;
• Strengthen cybersecurity knowledge within the cybersecurity sector.

State-of-the-art technology

ASOP is a multi-year public-private partnership in which state-of-the-art technology is developed within an innovation ecosystem in order to automate security operations in an innovative manner and in which test facilities are available to link the technology to security issues from the market. ASOP innovations are ultimately offered to the market as a holistic, integrated solution.

ASOP works along two routes to develop innovative solutions in the field of automation of security operations:

1. ASOP Next Generation Security Platform

With the development of a groundbreaking modular, scalable and flexibly expandable security platform in the cloud, we enable a high degree of automation of cybersecurity operations. Changes or configurations to the IT infrastructure are made at machine speed. The platform also provides automation tools to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of SOC and CSIRT operations and reduce the workload of SOC and CSIRT staff.

By using open standards and protocols, the ASOP platform guarantees extremely high interoperability between existing and future cyber security products. End users will therefore no longer be dependent on a single vendor. 

With this platform, end users within the government and sectors such as logistics and healthcare are enabled to automatically identify, detect and respond to cyber risks, taking into account the impact on the organisation in the response assessment.

Core partners

The core partners of the ASOP Next Generation Security Platform are BiZZdesign, KPN, VMware, TNO.

Prototype

In July 2021, ASOP delivered a first working prototype of the ASOP infrastructure. This includes the integration of an innovative modular, automated 'incident response cycle'. In the prototype a first scenario has been worked out in which, within a simulated network environment, an automated monitoring, detection and response to an incident (event) has been carried out.

TNO will further develop the prototype in the coming years with the above-mentioned partners using various use cases to create a mature, innovative Security Platform that fully meets market requirements.

2. ASOP Development, Test & Deployment hub

Within this community, there is a strong focus on the connection between supply and demand from the market and scientific research. On the one hand, end users and cyber security companies are facilitated in the exploitation of the developed ASOP innovations for the Security Platform. On the other hand, the DTD also supports other parties, such as SMEs, to develop, test and deploy innovations together in the short term.

Ambition

With the support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK), the Municipality of The Hague, and the Province of South Holland, the Automated Security Operations (ASOP) consortium was launched in July 2020. In a public-private partnership between Dutch cybersecurity companies, public organisations and TNO, the ASOP consortium ASOP has the ambition to become the knowledge centre for automated security operations within 5 years.

We would like to get in touch with parties that have similar ambitions. Together, we will facilitate Europe in developing and offering the most innovative and advanced automated security solutions. End users, cybersecurity companies, managed service providers as well as research institutions and other partnerships or initiatives in this area are warmly invited to contact Noura el Ouajdi of TNO.