Israeli cyber security company, SIGA OT Solutions has completed an $8.1m series B funding round led by PureTerra Ventures – a Dutch fund that specialises in water and infrastructure investments, along with Israeli venture fund SIBF, Moore Capital, and Phoenix Contact, a leading German manufacturer of electrical and control systems.
The funds will be primarily used to accelerate sales and strategic collaborations abroad with a focus on North America, Europe, the Far East, and the United Arab Emirates. The round brings to $15m the total raised to date by the company, including previous investments by SIBF, Canada’s AWZ Ventures and lucrative grants by the EC and IIA.
SIGA’s SigaGuard is a unique machine-learning based solution for smart and reliable operational process monitoring and early-detection of anomalies. It detects anomalies that indicate cyber attacks or operational faults in critical infrastructure and in industrial processes.
Unlike other solutions in the OT (Operational Technology) cyber security sector, that focus on monitoring the operational network, SigaGuard is unique in that it ‘listens’ to the electrical signals directly from Level 0, where critical operational processes take place.
Level 0 is the richest and most reliable level of process data within any operational environment. This level includes electrical signals from the sensors installed on equipment and machinery of electrical, gas and water utilities, industrial plants, and military facilities.
This data cannot be manipulated by cyber attacks, similar to the manipulations in dozens of serious attacks that took place in recent years. These included the notorious Stuxnet attack, attacks on Israel’s water infrastructure last year, on the water infrastructure in Florida, on the colonial gas pipelines in the US, and more.
The intensity of the recent cyber attacks on critical infrastructures, strengthened the recognition by many regulators, opinion leaders and leading solution providers, that Level 0 monitoring can no longer be ignored.
To handle this challenge, SigaGuard offers a highly reliable, autonomous, and smart solution, which gains increasing attention and popularity worldwide, according to SIGA.
SIGA’s cloud (SaaS) solution is based on a monthly subscription fee. Among SIGA’s customers are New York Power Authority, Singapore’s water company, Israel Electric Corporation, large chemical companies, Israel’s water infrastructure operator, government ministries, defence organisations and others.
SigaGuard was recently selected by the Israel Water Authority to be the core cyber security platform in the Security Operations Center for safeguarding Israel’s critical water infrastructure.
Amir Samoiloff, Co-founder and CEO of SIGA, noted: “The frequency and the intensity of attacks against operational infrastructure have escalated in recent years, and countries view these attacks as an existential threat that is only getting more severe.
Cyber security for critical infrastructure and control systems was viewed in the past as a long-term, complex, and expensive undertaking. However, in recent years the outlook has changed and there is a growing awareness and maturity in this important market.”
Samoiloff added: “SIGA is offering a unique solution for monitoring the critical process data at Level 0, to enable ultimate detection of cyber attacks on the most critical and vulnerable physical assets of national infrastructures. Level 0 is becoming the major axis in the resilience and integrity of critical national infrastructures worldwide and securing this level will become a major element in control systems in the coming years.”
“At PureTerra, we have a database of over a thousand high quality water technologies from around the world to filter from. SIGA was an investment decision that aligns perfectly on many fronts,’’ said Alexander Crowell, Partner at PureTerra Ventures. “I have spent more than 25 years in the water industry, and this type of technology is not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ to protect critical assets from cyber attacks.”
Crowell added: “It is unfortunate that there is an absolute requirement for protecting the safety of the public when it comes to essential services. SIGA can provide deep monitoring of these assets, and this fact brings unprecedented peace of mind. We are excited to become part of the SIGA team and to help deploy the response to global cyber security challenges.”
