Spotlight on cybersecurity

Cylus: CylusOne  

CylusOne is a multifunctional platform designed to provide around-the-clock monitoring and real-time protection for rail industry customers across the globe. It enables real-time threat detection, advanced forensics and mitigation, and “simplified security operations,” Cylus officials said in an email. It gives rail operators a complete view — from network topology to the granular level of each system asset, they said. Specifically, CylusOne provides: 

Asset management: Users can enable real-time monitoring of all assets across the network, including non-IP legacy devices such as point machines, light signals, interlocking, workstations and CCTV feeds. 

Threat detection: The platform is powered by advanced modeling, deep packet inspection and four detection engines. 

Security operations and remediation: CylusOne “bridges the gap” between cybersecurity and rail operations; it also offers remediation playbooks and integrates “seamlessly” with OCC and SOC systems, company officials said. 

Virtual segmentation: The feature provides automated virtual segmentation into security zones and conduits for “continuous compliance with all rail cybersecurity standards and regulations (e.g, IEC-62443 and TS-50701),” Cylus officials said.  

Shift5: Shift 5 for Rail 

Today’s trains are filled with digital components, but those components “were never designed for the connected age,” Shift5 officials said in an email. Once believed to be isolated from other internet-facing networks, the layer of operational technology (OT) on rail assets “has become connected, discoverable, and therefore, vulnerable to cyberattack,” company officials said. 

Shift5 for Rail is designed to defend the OT layer, enabling rail operators with situational awareness about cybersecurity risks. The company monitors OT networks to detect anomalous activity and identify system vulnerabilities, and alerts crew and maintenance personnel to potential threats. It also offers “full packet data capture,” collecting all onboard data in real time — from switches to locomotive engines, company officials said. Rail operators can perform a comprehensive cyber vulnerability assessment that meets TSA regulations and reports findings.

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