This sensor, named Arc Embedded, provides security and operations team visibility at the process level of their automation equipment and field assets as well as the ability to analyse and deter process level threats and malicious user activity without impacting current resources or disrupting mission-critical networks.

Nozomi Arc Embedded in Mitsubishi Electric PLCs makes it possible for the first time ever for organisations to monitor east-west activity in order to detect and respond to cyber incidents at the PLC level before they can do harm or escalate across the entire industrial operations environment.

The company claims organisations benefit from greater operational resilience and uptime, reduced cyber risk, and better compliance.

Nozomi Networks claims Arc Embedded delivers the following:

- Real-time visibility and security from the network endpoint to the manufacturing floor to enhance data integrity, more accurately detect PLC anomalies, and detect unauthorised access (intrusions).

- AI-powered protection to provide continuous monitoring for real-time learning, faster responses to security incidents and more robust detection of known and unknown vulnerabilities.

- Innovative visibility and protection for devices connected to the PLC “backplane” to understand module health and status, normal and abnormal communications patterns, all configuration changes, and firmware integrity.

A PLC is an industrial digital computer designed to automate manufacturing processes, ensuring high reliability and ease of programming.

Widely used across various industries, PLCs enhance operational efficiency by providing real-time processing and control in harsh environments.

Mitsubishi Electric’s MELSEC iQ-R family of PLCs facilitated the development of this new embedded security solution.

“Arc Embedded can transform how CISOs manage and protect critical infrastructure, extending security to and through industrial control systems, down to the field assets they manage,” says Nozomi Networks co-founder and chief product officer Andrea Carcano.

“Mitsubishi Electric is the perfect partner for this initiative, thanks to its passion for innovation and an unmatched understanding of automation,” adds Carcano.

“This is a revolutionary approach that makes it possible to extend in-depth real-time monitoring of assets, network traffic, anomaly detection, and threat identification directly to process controls. Ultimately, it improves the safety, security, and reliability of the automation processes we depend upon and sparks the imagination for what’s possible when advanced security is embedded at the device level.”

“Combining Mitsubishi Electric’s manufacturing-control and information-system security technologies with Nozomi Networks' visualisation and intrusion-detection technologies, allows us both to contribute to a safer, more secure and more sustainable society,” says Mitsubishi Electric representative executive officer and industry and mobility business area owner Kunihiko Kaga.

The PLC market is expected to reach $22 billion by 2030 as more industries embrace and expand their use of automation, driving the need for better control-level cybersecurity. Recent CISA advisories on attempted PLC exploits are a harsh reminder that a related attack could shut down production, or cause a public safety crisis.

Arc Embedded is available now for Mitsubishi Electric iQ-R series PLCs via a subscription-based model, available from Mitsubishi Electric, Nozomi Networks, and an extensive global network of Nozomi Networks channel partners.