Celona has launched new security capabilities to improve private 5G wireless security for Industry 4.0. Aerloc is designed to enhance security for industrial IT and OT systems.

New capabilities include extended SIM-based authentication for unified zero trust enforcement, dynamic and distributed policy enforcement, and air-gapping between IT and OT traffic running on a common private 5G network, enabled by Celona MicroSlicing .

Celona Aerloc is aimed at addressing a drawback of conventional IT zero trust architectures in industrial settings where the need to keep data on-premises for low latency response, IoT devices require agentless authentication and a division between IT and OT networks. Celona addresses these challenges by unifying IT, OT and private 5G. This convergence is designed to enable organisations to capture real-time data from IIoT devices securely. This allows operational and security data to be analysed immediately.

Celona Aerloc delivers SIM-based authentication with unified zero trust enforcement for IT and OT devices. It integrates with enterprise security solutions including Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR and Next Generation Firewall (NGFW), Cisco ISE, and Aruba ClearPass.

Dynamic and distributed policy enforcement integrates with posture assessment tools, IoT security solutions, and security orchestration automation platforms. Aerloc provides an air gap between IT and OT traffic using Celona MicroSlicing technology. IT and OT traffic can be securely segmented both physically and logically over the air, on the LAN and within the shared 5G LAN network.

“Operational technology environments are challenging to secure from a connectivity perspective given the use of industrial sensors and IoT devices that are more easily compromised. 5G cellular technology provides additional encryption over 4G LTE and Wi-Fi standards, but more is needed given the growing sophistication of bad actors,” said Will Townsend, Principal Analyst, Networking & Security, Moor Insights & Strategy. “Celona Aerloc aims to address these challenges and accelerate the adoption of private 5G within the enterprise with a purpose-built, easy-to-manage, zero-trust security architecture that blends support for both IT and OT network deployments.”

“Celona Aerloc represents a significant milestone in how industrial networks are secured,” said Rajeev Shah, CEO and Co-Founder of Celona. “By seamlessly integrating zero trust principles with our enterprise 5G LAN architecture, we empower organisations to confidently migrate mission-critical OT operations to private 5G while maintaining ironclad security and granular control. Aerloc eliminates the traditional trade-off between operational agility and cybersecurity, paving the way for true IT/OT convergence and all the benefits it offers.”