As one of the world’s largest and most iconic automotive manufacturers, this company has spent over a century engineering vehicles that power daily life, from family cars to cutting-edge electric vehicles. With a global footprint and a commitment to reliability, they deliver millions of vehicles each year, supported by a vast network of advanced manufacturing facilities.
However, in recent years, their operations have faced escalating cyber threats, with malware increasingly targeting both production environments and vehicle systems. From 2010 to 2023, the automotive industry saw service and business disruptions account for 42% of cyber incidents, underscoring the critical need for robust cybersecurity measures. Recognizing this, the company has made securing their operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) environments a top priority to ensure the safety and continuity of their production and innovation efforts.
They faced a big challenge: finding a secure way to scan files, manage visitors, and transfer data across the organization without risking their operational security. Their previous setup, a variety of tools from different vendors, was hard to integrate and left gaps that made their critical infrastructure vulnerable. To close these gaps, they needed a unified, advanced cybersecurity solution to strengthen their defenses and protect their operations against constantly evolving threats.
The solution they found was OPSWAT’s integrated MetaDefender Platform, which provides advanced file scanning, file transfer, and visitor management, all within a cohesive ecosystem.
OPSWAT’s MetaDefender Kiosk, and MetaDefender Managed File Transfer delivered seamless functionality while ensuring security throughout their operations.
Understanding the Solutions
MetaDefender Kiosk
MetaDefender Kiosk offers features designed for secure visitor management and file scanning. As a pivotal part of the deployment, the automotive manufacturer leveraged this solution with deployments at entrances, guard desks, and critical control areas to scan files brought in by employees, contractors, and visitors. This prevents the risk of introducing malware through external devices into their secure environment.
MetaDefender Managed File Transfer
This solution ensures that file transfers within and between networks remain secure. MetaDefender Managed File Transfer scans files, ensuring they meet the manufacturer’s security policies, and facilitates the safe movement of data across their IT and OT networks without opening vulnerabilities.
The Importance of an Integrated Security Approach
For the global automotive manufacturer, an integrated approach to file scanning, transfer, and visitor management is essential for three key reasons:
- Operational Efficiency: By securing data movement and streamlining visitor management, the company ensures that its operations run smoothly without unnecessary delays or security risks.
- Unified Security Enforcement: Using MetaDefender Media Validation Agent and MetaDefender Media Firewall ensures that all scanning policies are enforced consistently across the entire infrastructure.
- Advanced Visibility and Control: With OPSWAT’s advanced kiosk management capabilities, the manufacturer can easily monitor, update, and enforce policies across all kiosks within their network, simplifying log collection and ensuring consistency in updates.
The Risks of Inefficient Solutions
Prior to implementing OPSWAT solutions, the automotive manufacturer was using multiple solutions from different vendors. This disjointed approach resulted in:
- Security Gaps: Incomplete or inefficient integration led to vulnerabilities across both IT and OT environments.
- Increased Management Complexity: Managing solutions from different vendors made updates, policy enforcement, and visibility into operations cumbersome and prone to error.
- Inconsistent Policy Enforcement: Different tools enforced security policies in different ways, leading to inconsistencies and security risks.
The Uncompromising Security of OPSWAT's Solutions
OPSWAT’s suite of solutions delivered an integrated and robust approach to secure file scanning, transfer, and visitor management, providing:
Seamless Integration
OPSWATs solutions came together to fit perfectly into the customer’s vision and technology needs, solving the challenges faced by this customer. Streamlining process and ensuring a more secure way to move and track data.
Opportunity for Vendor Consolidation
The manufacturer’s switch to OPSWAT’s solutions allowed them to consolidate their security vendors, reducing complexity and increasing efficiency across their IT and OT networks.
Defense-in-Depth Security
With MetaDefender Kiosk and MetaDefender Managed File Transfer, the company can secure all aspects of their removable media use, file transfer, and visitor management in one cohesive system.
Optimized Operations
The enhanced visibility, ease of log collection, and simplified updates enabled by OPSWAT’s advanced kiosk management tools improved operational efficiency and security monitoring.
Industry Leading Technology
Powered by OPSWAT’s globally trusted technologies, this automotive manufacturer rests easy, knowing that proven threat prevention is at the heart of their cybersecurity posture.
- MetaScan Multiscanning: With up to 30 of the world’s leading antivirus engines at its disposal, this technology detects known threats that other solutions miss.
- Deep CDR: OPSWAT's Deep Content Disarm and Reconstruction file sanitization technology scans files, removes malicious content, and rebuilds safe and usable files with 100% accuracy.
- Adaptive Sandbox: OPSWAT's Sandbox technology detects zero-day threats and extracts IOCs to enhance threat intelligence in a secure, isolated environment.
- Proactive DLP: Prevent data leakage by redacting—or removing—sensitive information from files.
By adopting OPSWAT’s solutions, the global automotive manufacturer achieved advanced visibility, streamlined file and visitor management, and comprehensive protection of their critical systems. OPSWAT’s defense-in-depth solutions ensure that the gap between IT and OT is securely bridged, all while optimizing internal processes and securing critical operations.
Discover how OPSWAT can secure your environment—talk to an expert today to get started.
