Exhibiting @ TDI SCDS20 & Dot for Defence?

Team Defence Information - Support Chain and Digital Seminar 2020 (SCDS20)

Modernisation and Digital Transformation are key to ensuring our military, and wider defence & security sectors, remain prepared and able to deliver effective, resilient, global operations well into the future. Cyber security is one of the key areas being hotly debated, and Operational Technology Cyber Security is also a major concern for these sectors.

Awen Collective will be virtually exhibiting at the Support Chain and Digital Seminar 2020 (SCDS20), an event jointly organised by Team Defence Information and UK MOD. The event will be held virtually across two days in September and will focus in on “Digital Support in Defence.'“



To find out more details on the TDI website - click here

To prepare for the event we have produced a blog post about the value of Dot to the defence & security sectors:

Dot for Defence & Security - What and How?

Dot is a software product which provides an in-depth understanding of the Operational Technology (OT) assets and their vulnerabilities, in a way that is automated but still safety and security critical.

Defence, like many other industrial sectors, want to see efficiencies in their automation systems. For this reason, they are investing in newer supervisory and data analysis systems (Industry 4.0) which connect existing Operational Technology (OT) networks with Information Technology (IT) networks and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks.

Defence and security have a whole range of different Operational Technologies in different places. From key card physical access systems, to weapons systems, to Heating Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC), to control systems on planes and ships and much much more. Essentially anywhere which has (networks of) sensors and actuators with some control in the middle - that’s what is in scope!

Unfortunately, this opens up the OT network to increased threat of cyber attack. If disruption were to occur on OT systems, then operational continuity could slow down to a complete halt and the safety and security of the operators and engineers could be at risk.

  • Dot focuses purely on reducing risk and increasing resilience before a cyber incident

  • We take a forensic perspective, in that we gather as much detail as we can on assets and cyber vulnerabilities that we can, in order to give the best actionable intelligence to the user

  • Dot has the flexibility for any industrial environment. It can be used on-premise or in the cloud, and it can be used either with live feeds of data, or with snapshots (packet captures - "pcaps") of archived network traffic

  • Dot is engineering friendly with both unobtrusive passive scanning and safety-critical active scanning

Dot currently has support for Modbus, Siemens S7, DNP-3, Ethernet-IP and many more protocols and devices.

Awen is an award winning Welsh Cyber Security Software company focusing specifically on industrial systems (i.e. acronyms such as OT, ICS, SCADA, IIoT, BACS etc.). We develop everything ourselves in-house in Wales, and are a small but very innovative team who deeply understands the need for Security-by-Design. Our Dot software has been the subject of a MOD DSTL DASA project called Project Domino (2019-2020), and has been tested and extended specifically for the defence & security sectors.

Contact us today for further information.

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Top 30 British Tech Companies Chosen for UK Gov DIT Tech Export Academy - Awen Collective included!

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It was officially announced by UK Government on 8th September 2020 that thirty of the best British tech companies (which have applications within the growing Smart Cities sector) have been chosen as the first participants of the UK Government Department for International Trade’s (DIT) new Tech Export Academy programme. The 30 businesses chosen include us - Awen Collective!

The DIT Tech Export Academy is an exciting 9 month programme providing a package of support from both the public and private sectors, enabling the 30 businesses to expand and grow their businesses in the Asia-Pacific region.

The programme includes two virtual trade missions to each to a different half of the Asia-Pacific countries, and will culminate in a physical trade mission to Thailand supported by the Thai Government Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. The programme will focus specifically on Smart Cities, which is very important in a region that has many of the worlds megacities and a significant desire for growth and progress.

Daniel Lewis, CEO of Awen Collective said “Team Awen are very excited to exploring the Asia Pacific market with the help of the Department of International Trade, as well as partners such as PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, EY, BDO and others. It’s an entirely new region for us to explore - a region which is full of opportunities for our Dot product to truly make a difference to Cyber Resilience for Smart Cities, Critical National Infrastructure and Manufacturing.”

The programme features a wide range of businesses - including those providing services and products in: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Property surveying, Urban planning, Cycling solutions, Electric vehicle chargin, ID solutions and much more. Awen is one of a couple of cyber security companies chosen, and the only one offering a specific software solution for the discovery of assets and vulnerabilities on Operational Technologies (OT).

The programme was kicked off on the 8th September 2020 with a speech by Graham Stuart MP - UK Government Minister for Exports, and a speech by Ajarin Pattanapanchai - Permanent Secretary of the Thai Government Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.

 
Ajarin Pattanapanchai giving a speech to the DIT Tech Export Academy cohort

Ajarin Pattanapanchai giving a speech to the DIT Tech Export Academy cohort

 

The virtual programme kick-off also included a panel consisting of DIT’s Chief Scientific Adviser Dr Mike Short, Oriel Petry (Director of the Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Directorate), Colin Sinclair (CEO of the Knowledge Quarter in Liverpool) and Jane Morrison-Ross (CEO at tech trade body ScotlandIS).

 
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The 30 companies have been split into two cohorts to make it more manageable for the organisers and partners. The cohorts have been named Avalon and Camelot, with Awen appropriately being in the Avalon cohort. Here are the thirty chosen ones:

Awen Collective receives a FairPlay Employer Award from Chwarae Teg

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Awen Collective has had the pleasure of working with the gender equality charity, Chwarae Teg, through their Agile Nation 2 Business Programme, to ensure both our policies and procedures are not only fully up-to-date with the latest legislation, but also mirror best practices to ensure fairness and equality for all.

Thanks to their excellent support, we’ve implemented changes which will positively affect not only our current employees, but all the future members of #TeamAwen we look forward to welcoming as we continue to grow.

In recognition of this, Chwarae Teg have kindly awarded Awen Collective with the Developing FairPlay Employer Award.

Awen Collective CTO, Jules said: “We’re delighted with the excellent support we’ve received from Chwarae Teg through their AN2 Business Programme, and we’re proud to be recognised as a FairPlay Employer.”

The Developing FairPlay Employer Award demonstrates our commitment to developing a culture that supports gender equality, by implementing policies and associated documents that provide transparency with support from Chwarae Teg, and we look forward to continuing our development journey with them. With higher level FairPlay Employer Awards available, we’re hoping to return with more good news in the future!

Chwarae Teg’s support hasn’t only been related to gender equality, with Awen receiving support and training regarding subjects including Learning and Development, Performance Management, Flexible Working and Neurodiversity.

Awen Collective CEO, Daniel said: "Gender equality is one of many directions that we're pushing to be the very best at. We are truly a values-driven business. We believe that it's imperative when growing a great business to have a happy and healthy workforce."

We’re commited to being a responsible employer (you can see our commitment and expectations on our careers page) and look forward to continuing to engage with Chwarae Teg and other organisations which help us reach our goals. You can see a selection of the wonderful organisations we’ve worked with on our Friends page.

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Thales NDEC is now a Friend of Awen

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Awen is proud to announce a friendship and partnership with the Thales National Digital Exploitation Centre.

The National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC) is an exciting collaboration between Thales, Welsh Government and the University of South Wales. A partnership focusing on digital and cyber security project delivery, education and research. Supporting local and regional businesses, schools and individuals in their digital endeavours, helping to position Wales as a global player in the tech industry.

Awen and NDEC are beginning a journey of exploration to find ways to best collaborate. To begin, Awen will be partnering with NDEC for demonstrations of Dot software on live environments within NDECs OT Cyber Range. Together we will be able to show critical national infrastructure organisations, manufacturers and the defence sector our capabilities to decrease cyber risk and increase cyber resilience within Operational Technology environments, and to do so at scale.

For more information about NDEC please visit their website.

For more details about Awen, please do browse our website and feel free to get in contact.

Innovation Partnership: Part 2

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Hello again all, it’s Steve, the Percy Hobart Fellowship member partnered with Awen. I promised in my last blog post that I would return to tell you how my adventure with Awen was going and here I am.

For the last week or so I have been working alongside Awen’s senior business solutions consultant James Sandrone, investigating different use cases for Dot and Profile, Awen’s two OT Resilience products, and how they can be applied across multiple industries. This has been a fascinating experience to date. 

I know I have been surprised at the breadth of industries both large and small that require Operational Technology (OT) to maintain their operations and the wide ranging nature of the cyber threats facing such equipment.

Fortunately a lot of work is being done to address these threats and help secure businesses and national infrastructure with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) taking lead and offering a wealth of resources to read through to assess your requirements and what can be done to make an organisation safer.

Cyber companies such as Awen help put this advice into practice, in Awen’s case by utilising Profile to make navigating the cyber assessment framework (CAF) easier allowing your organisation to work through the framework to check that your processes are  compliant with national legislation, such as the NIS.

Whilst Dot takes a more detailed approach analysing your existing OT equipment and showing the vulnerabilities and therefore risks to the assets connected on the network, whether this is Industrial Control Systems (ICS), SCADA, Industrial IoT or Smart Buildings.

One of the biggest things I am noticing is the strength of community within the Cyber world, the realisation that not one product or company has all the pieces to the complex problems faced with Cyber Security and Cyber Resilience but by working together and being aware of the threats the world can be made safer a piece at a time. 

If you have any questions about Cyber resilience and what you can do to help, and to perhaps improve your own organisations resilience please do get in touch, one of the team here will be more than happy to help. 

Meanwhile I’m off to another meeting with James and hope to share some more of my findings with you another week. 

Working for Awen - A software developer's insight

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Hello, I am Seren Corbett, a software developer at Awen Collective. For this blog I thought I would tell you about my first year at Awen Collective, a wonderful Welsh startup.

First, let’s rewind a few years… In 2015 I began my BSc Computer Science degree at Cardiff University. As part of this degree I spent a year in industry at Citrix (a large company with an 8000-strong workforce) as a Software Engineer Intern. In this role I learnt a lot about the software development lifecycle in a large company and gained skills in Testing and User Interface development. From this internship, the main thing I learnt about myself was that I enjoy a challenge and trying new and different things. So when I returned to university, I began my search for a new adventure in my career. Then I came across Awen Collective - a cyber security startup. Working for this company seemed to be the perfect opportunity for me, for many reasons, including:

1. It’s cyber security, an area of technology I have always been interested in, and an area of technology it would be difficult to live without (read the previous blog to find out more). In fact, when leaving my sixth-form, I was asked what was my goal for the future, and I said that I wanted to work in cyber security. Little did I know that this goal would be achieved so soon.

2. It’s a startup company. This intrigued me being a very new and different environment to that of a large company like Citrix. A startup company can offer more varied opportunities and responsibilities than a larger company and your input equates to a greater contribution than it might at a larger company. At a startup you are a big cog in a small wheel, so to speak. This was the main reason I decided to join Awen Collective. I wanted to be able to try different responsibilities to learn new skills and improve my self-confidence, something that I have definitely been able to do this past year. Other benefits of a startup include the smaller team, a predominantly flat company structure and business transparency. This structure allows for easy communication across the team as well as better collaboration. This quality lends itself to our company values, Agility, Warmth, Equality and Next-level innovation. While continuing to be productive and innovative, as a smaller team we are very social and in general the startup atmosphere is informal compared to many larger companies. CEO Dan and CTO Jules are also very open about business discussions and decisions, this has meant that I have learnt a lot about how running a business works, another thing that I have always been interested in. Another perk of working at a startup is the mutual trust and flexibility, which creates a perfect work/life balance.

Awen Collective focuses on building software solutions to help Critical National Infrastructure companies, and other companies with operational technology (OT), protect their network from cyber threats. We currently have 2 products, Profile and DOT. Profile is cyber security compliance audit software that allows users to assess their cyber resilience against the NIS Directive. DOT is software that enables the discovery of OT assets and vulnerabilities on the network.

During the first half of the year I was working on Profile, building new features and automated tests ready for the release of Profile v1.2. While these were my main activities, I collaborated with my team in many areas of the software development lifecycle from user interface design, through front and back end development, testing and release. I have also had the opportunity to learn and use cloud services, something which in the not too distant future I hope to gain a certification in. More recently, I have been working on project DOMINO for the MOD, extending the development of DOT. Releasing Profile v1.2 and joining this project coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic being declared, so I had to adapt to working from home. These circumstances also meant that I became the primary developer on this project, an interesting challenge but definitely not an insurmountable one! I didn’t have much experience with the code at this point but a good tip for new projects is to play around with the code to discover how it works. That is what I have done these last few months to develop DOT to fit to project requirements and it has been a fun learning experience. The skills I have learnt due to our unforeseen lockdown, have improved my work ethic all round. I am more productive, due to the reduction in my commute, and my problem solving skills and organisation have improved along with my independence and confidence. I also think that Awen has adapted brilliantly, with an instant form of communication and regular check-ins with members of staff not just to check how work is going but also to check how we are doing in such strange circumstances.

What have enjoyed the most about my first year at Awen Collective?

Firstly, the team is great, being a small company, the team is like a second family.  We get on very well with each other and new members quickly settle in. When we are in the office, we always get lunch together and if the weather is nice (a rare Welsh treat), we go walking in the Caerphilly hills with our canine colleagues Twiglet and Elsie.

Secondly, there is always a new challenge, something to do or something new to learn. The work tasks at Awen are tailored to each individual’s strengths within the project brief and there are always opportunities to learn or try out something new. Throughout the year, alongside the software development I have done, I have also had other opportunities and responsibilities to take on. These include writing this blog, delivering product demos, solving customer issues, attending various conferences, including BSides Cymru and Black Hat Europe in London and attending Cyber Wales Capture-The-Flag cluster meetings, to name a few. I have enjoyed them thoroughly and the opportunities have continued to arise. In September I will be starting a leadership course to improve my leadership skills and increase my self-confidence. An opportunity I am very excited for, and one where I will gain a qualification to add to my CV. 

Working for Awen Collective has been a brilliant experience so far and I look forward to seeing what the future holds as my journey here continues.

What does Awen do? A guide for everyone!

The following post is by Awen CEO & Cofounder, Daniel Lewis.

Every single one of us uses energy, and that might be electricity, gas, oil/petrol. It might be from renewable sources, or could be from fossil fuels. You might be entirely reliant on a grid system, or you might be self-sufficient and use solar water heaters and photovoltaic solar panels for electricity.

Every single one of us uses water, and that might be provided from a service network of community pipes, or you might have rainwater collection and filtration systems.

Every single one of us uses transportation, for work or for living or for holidays. We have road networks with traffic lights and street lights, we have rail networks, we have airports and airlines. We also have logistics and delivery companies which use these transportation networks to deliver produce to us, and to the shops and businesses on which we rely on a day-to-day basis.

We have satellites providing us with communication and satnav capabilities. We have the police, military, pharmaceutical services and chemical production services - which form crucial parts of our life, directly or indirectly.

A disruption to any of these services could have huge consequences on our day-to-day lives, our businesses and our economy.

At Awen, we work with the organisations which provide these services, to make sure that they are reducing any risk of disruption which could be caused by cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks aren't just about stealing private data, performing fraud, or creating nuisance viruses on your home computer. Hackers have the potential, and they actually have around the world, to cause significant disruption to the devices which control the operations of our energy, water, transport and manufacturing systems leading not only to huge costs to the organisations that run these systems, but significant disruption to society.

Such a disruption could bring the economy to a standstill, or it could even cause health and safety issues (for example, if it were to hit a hospital).

I am writing this not to cause fear, but to honestly state that this is exactly why we exist. Awen exists to reduce the cyber threat to these organisations, this is the reason why we do what we do. This is why we are passionate about it. We do it so that not everyone has to worry about the threat. We do this to make society safer, globally.

Taking the journey from IT to OT security. My findings so far (James Sandrone)

 
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Hi, I am James Sandrone, the senior business solutions consultant at Awen Collective and I’m an OT security newbie.

Seven months ago I started working for the fabulous Industrial cyber security start-up called Awen Collective. This presented an exciting opportunity to grow both on the business development and technical side. With this came the promise to be part of something from the ground up, that could really make a difference. Through my experience of putting together CISO & CIO events for a previous employer, cyber was certainly a strong area of interest for the next step of my professional journey. My limited experience in cyber told me that it is about trust and integrity, and I wanted to work within an area with these attributes.

Through some mutual connections that understood both mine, and my then potential employers, needs and ambitions, I joined a fantastic team at Awen Collective. Awen believed in me and gave me the platform to put my ideas into practise to grow the business. Not only that, the key values of trust and integrity were clear to see from the start, and I needed to dig deep into understanding the market and the technologies. 

So the first question I wanted asked myself was, OT & IT - what are the differences? Well, If I had to explain this 7 months ago then I would have broken it down like this: IT deals with information, while OT (Operational Technology) deals with machines, and while OT manages the operation of physical processes and the machinery used to carry them out, IT manages the flow of digital information. But it got a little confusing to me, as they can often cross over through contemporary ICS (Industrial Control Systems) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and their connection to the internet also. The real big problem that I initially discovered was that the OT involved in these systems is sometimes old, and was not designed to be secure against this kind of connectivity and risk. In contrast, the risk within IT is far better understood and mitigated.  

I wanted to dig a bit deeper into the perspective of an Industrial CISO / OT Cyber professional… so that's exactly what I did! Months of engaging with these experts in all parts of the world (to understand if this was a global problem). I noticed a common feeling among the community, that there is a lot of noise at the moment around OT cyber solutions and what they promise to deliver, but the reality is very different and in fact, unfortunately, there is a lot of disappointment in the current solutions on the market and what they offer. This, of course, naturally made it easier for me to engage with industrial organisations, as OT cyber needs were far from being met.

The great thing is that through speaking with many people within cyber security, it seems that the awareness and need for a better OT cyber solution is growing. As is the community of people who want to make a difference by better understanding cyber resilience. After all, our Critical National Infrastructure has significant cyber risk, and a threat to industry is a threat to every one of us. We, as the cyber security community, need to get this right. We can definitely keep society a little safer by reducing the risk of cyber attacks on our essential services, I encourage any of you in the cyber world that feel the same way, to get in touch and see how we can tackle this problem together!