Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation, a manufacturer of industrial automation and digital transformation products, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Chicago-based Verve Industrial Protection, a cybersecurity software and services company specializing in industrial environments.
The acquisition is subject to customary approvals and is expected to close in the first quarter of Rockwell’s fiscal year 2024. Verve will become part of Rockwell’s Lifecycle Services operating segment. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition is expected to expand Rockwell’s offerings with the addition of an asset inventory system and vulnerability management solution, known as the Verve Security Center platform.
A recent Rockwell report found that operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) attacks are on the rise, with 60% of the incidents studied leading to a disruption in operations.
“The foundation of OT cybersecurity starts with visibility into assets – you can’t protect what you don’t know you have. This continues to be a critical challenge for manufacturers,” said Matt Fordenwalt, senior vice president of Rockwell’s Lifecycle Services segment. “With the Verve acquisition, our customers can quickly assess their assets, prioritize risk, and apply countermeasures to mitigate vulnerabilities – all within a single platform. The addition of Verve to our suite of solutions allows customers to further build resiliency and continuously improve the security, safety, and availability of their operations.”
The Verve Security Center platform was built to provide IT-level security. The Verve platform uses an asset inventory system that recognizes all industrial assets, regardless of manufacturer. The platform communicates directly with the assets, gathering critical information without impacting network performance and interrupting production. It then gathers a wide range of data sources, including Rockwell’s partner technologies, and puts that data into its platform underneath one database. That database then provides information for customers to quickly address their highest-risk assets.
“Our platform has helped clients mitigate thousands of vulnerabilities and is an important addition to Rockwell’s OT cybersecurity solutions, providing actionable intelligence to quickly mitigate cybersecurity risks so that manufacturing facilities can stay up and running,” said John Livingston, chief executive officer of Verve Industrial.
