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Our Purpose
Vendor-neutral, interoperable, standards-based cybersecurity solutions are crucial to ensuring the resiliency of the nation’s critical infrastructure.
The Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition is a diverse group of cybersecurity vendors, founded by Claroty, Forescout, Honeywell, Nozomi Networks, and Tenable. Representing the entire OT lifecycle and with decades of experience protecting our nation's critical infrastructure assets, we have joined together to improve the cybersecurity of OT environments. We believe that the strongest, most effective approach to securing our collective defense is one that is open, vendor-neutral, and allows for diverse solutions and information sharing without compromising cybersecurity defenses.
Our success depends on the strength of many.
The Coalition’s broad representation - consisting of industry leaders, all of whom are usually fierce competitors but who have come together for this effort - will broaden policymakers’ perspectives on key cybersecurity issues and demonstrate the critical need to address these issues.
As the government and private sector stakeholders continue their efforts to secure and defend our nation’s critical infrastructure, we will work collaboratively with CISA, DHS, and sector risk management agencies on how to best deploy an open standards-based and interoperable set of data-sharing solutions to enhance cybersecurity and strengthen our collective defense.
We look forward to working with government and industry on how to deploy an open standards-based and interoperable set of solutions.
Over the course of our engagements, we’ve been successful in sharing how crucial it is that the government adopt a technology-neutral and standards-based approach to cybersecurity. We were encouraged to see language in the Administration’s recent Fact Sheet on the Water Sector Action Plan to promote a similar vendor- and technology-neutral approach, and we want to ensure this approach will be continued as the public and private sectors collaborate to improve the state of OT/ICS cybersecurity.
We invite feedback and requests from CISA, DHS, sector risk management agencies, and industry at large on how to best deploy an open standards-based and interoperable set of data-sharing solutions to enhance cybersecurity and strengthen our collective defense. By increasing awareness of OT/ICS cybersecurity challenges and solutions and by serving as a central resource for the public and private sectors, we hope to bring increased security and control over the country’s most critical environments
Our Principles
Interoperability
Technologies should be based on open standards and promote innovation, while avoiding proprietary solutions that create vendor lock-in. Ultimately, no single solution can fully address the cybersecurity challenges industrial enterprises face, and the US Government must reinforce this tenet. This open standards and technology-neutral approach will encourage critical infrastructure owners and operators to choose the solutions that work best for them.
Vendor-Neutral Cybersecurity Characteristics
The US Government should work with all sector risk management agencies to endorse a core set of cybersecurity characteristics of technologies that will improve the cybersecurity of the ICS/OT community. By ensuring they enable agreed-upon key objectives identified through the combined expertise and experience of industry, the US Government will maintain a posture of technology neutrality while also engaging with and incentivizing the development of a larger community of cybersecurity vendors who work every day to secure our nation’s critical infrastructure.
Providing Industry Expertise
Representing the world’s leading ICS and OT cybersecurity vendors covering the entire OT lifecycle, our members help businesses of all sizes in every part of the economy secure the nation’s most critical infrastructure. By gathering the expertise of this community, the Coalition will provide governments and critical infrastructure owners and operators with industry expertise on standards, best practices, and the impact of policy on increasing the cybersecurity preparedness of critical infrastructure.
Addressing Feedback and Public Policy Proposals from Governments
Given the expertise that the Coalition’s members bring to bear, the Coalition will become a trusted advisor to policymakers seeking to enhance the cybersecurity readiness of critical infrastructure. The Coalition will provide feedback on proposals made while also advancing its own ideas, rooted in a standards-based, innovation promoting, competitive marketplace for ICS and OT cybersecurity solutions.
Funding for Federal OT Cybersecurity
The US Government spends billions of dollars protecting the enterprise IT infrastructure in its many departments and agencies. The Coalition will advocate for funding for Federal Civilian agencies to implement OT cybersecurity measures, including, among other things, asset and device inventory.