You can harden the network,
You can encrypt the link,
You can segment the enclave,
You can assess the supplier, and
You can still lose control of what the machine is actually allowed to do.

Conventional security tools reduce the probability of failure. They need time to observe, analyze, and decide if something is wrong. By the time applications, AI or specialists detect and confirm a legitimate problem, machine-level attacks have already happened. Damage is done.

Unlike attacks on information systems, attacks on machines — even the machines that create information systems — have real-world consequences. Services can be simply shut down or they could be shattered. People can be hurt and systems can be irreparably broken.

Machines don’t negotiate. They don’t weigh options. They don’t run analytics and you don’t want them to. That isn’t their job. Machines act.

A signal arrives, and they respond. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an IT device or an OT device. Every machine behaves essentially the same way. If a signal says stop, it stops. If it says go, it goes. Machines must commit the moment the signal hits.

A NAS device stores data where and when it is told. An electromechanical lock opens when the correct keycard is swiped. Electric brakes act the instant a command reaches them.

When you are traveling down a highway with your family you need to know that if the you apply brakes, they apply. If you say release, they release. Brakes shouldn’t consider context or authenticity, they must act. However, this means that if the signal they receive is false, malformed, or spoofed, the brake will still execute it – and therein lies the challenge.

After billions of dollars globally and decades of action to secure our world from emerging cyber threats in the information space, we have made virtually no progress in ensuring the machines that form the foundation of our technologically hyper-connected world can be trusted. Until now.

Blueskytec’s Keyspace Technology (KST) operates at the moment commands appear, before they can cross the execution boundary. It verifies whether the signal is allowed, correctly formed, and coming from the right source. Because KST is hardware, it authenticates the signal in microseconds (millionths of a second). Only legitimate commands reach their destinations.

Machines require real-time proactive protection, not detection. They live too close to the action. Do all the forensics you need if you can, but no one puts the seat belt on during the impact.