CISA, NSA Adopt Dragos’ Platform for Secure ICS/OT Information Sharing

Dragos, a cybersecurity software developer, has entered into a public-private partnership with the National Security Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Under the partnership, the agencies will adopt the company’s Neighborhood Keeper, which is designed to enable secure intelligence sharing across industrial control system and operational technology networks in real time.

The NSA and CISA will serve as “Trusted Advisors” for the Neighborhood Keeper network, improving government analysts’ ability to detect cyber threats to industrial infrastructure, Dragos said Monday.

Industrial control systems refer to integrated hardware and software designed to control machines and devices in industrial environments.

In early 2021, lawmakers introduced legislation seeking to elevate CISA’s role in providing private organizations and government agencies the resources they need to protect industrial control systems.

With Neighborhood Keeper, CISA and the NSA now have access to a tool that, according to Dragos, lets industrial control system operators share information without exposing sensitive data.

Morgan Adamski, director of the NSA’s Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, said that Neighborhood Keeper will complement the agency’s intelligence and cybersecurity sources and will enable efforts to intercept foreign cyber threats.

Dragos added that the platform, which was launched in March 2019, is already in use among sector-specific intelligence communities in the public and private sectors.

The company highlighted previous Neighborhood Keeper collaborations with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, the Oil and Natural Gas ISAC and the Downstream Natural Gas ISAC.