Honeywell has acquired Scadafence, an Israeli provider of operational technology (OT) and IoT cyber security for monitoring large-scale networks.

Scadafence brings proven capabilities in asset discovery, threat detection and security governance, which are key to industrial and buildings management cyber-security programmes.

The OT cyber-security industry is expected to grow to greater than $10bn in the next several years. Particularly in the industrial sector, cyber attacks focused on OT systems can be a significant source of unplanned downtime, with estimates that unplanned downtime represents over a trillion dollars in lost revenue for the industrial and critical infrastructure sectors.

“It is essential to protect and maintain the integrity of operational systems like process control equipment in manufacturing facilities,” said Kevin Dehoff, CEO of Honeywell Connected Enterprise. “A simple breach in the OT environment has the potential to create safety and business continuity risk for organisations of all sizes. OT assets are inherently different than those in the IT environment as they are domain specific. Honeywell has been delivering and installing these systems for decades, which is why we launched our cyber-security business more than twenty years ago. Adding Scadafence’s product portfolio will strengthen our capabilities and help our customers defend themselves against cyber-security risks which are progressively increasing.”

Scadafence products will be integrated into Honeywell’s Forge Cybersecurity+ suite. This will enable Honeywell to provide end-to-end enterprise OT cyber security to site managers, operations management and CISOs seeking enterprise security management and situational awareness.

The acquisition strengthens existing capabilities in cyber security and bolsters Honeywell’s high-growth OT cybersecurity portfolio, helping users operate more securely, reliably and efficiently.

“Scadafence is an ideal complement to Honeywell’s OT cyber-security portfolio and, when combined with the Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ suite, it enables us to provide an end-to-end solution with applicability to asset, site and enterprise across key Honeywell sectors,” said Dehoff. “By enhancing our cyber-security portfolio, we are accessing a growth engine and enabling our customers to operate their OT environments more securely and help to avoid disruption and possible catastrophic events.”

Elad Ben Meir, CEO of Scadafence, added: “We are thrilled to join Honeywell as we work towards fulfilling our mission of empowering industrial organisations to operate securely, reliably and efficiently. This combination creates significant opportunity for growth, allowing us to combine our top-tier OT cyber-security products with one of the world’s leading companies in industrial software. With this acquisition, we are poised to deliver some of the most advanced OT security technology to Honeywell’s broad customer base, bolstering the comprehensive Honeywell Forge Cybersecurity+ offering. We remain committed to proactively serving and supporting our customers across all verticals and geographies where we currently operate.”

Scadafence is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will expand Honeywell’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Tel Aviv. Honeywell has been implementing OT cyber security for more than twenty years, delivering thousands of projects in over 130 countries with more than 500 employees worldwide focused specifically on OT cyber security.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of certain regulatory approvals.