How NVIDIA Safeguards Critical Infrastructure Environments

The development and adoption of Gen AI has brought countless opportunities for innovation and growth across industries and in research fields, revolutionising the way we work by automating tasks, boosting creativity and productivity, and unlocking new value streams.   

Like all technologies that move at such a rapid pace, those same opportunities also bring greater risk. In the case of Gen AI, this evolution has shifted the cybersecurity threat landscape and created new, often-complex security requirements for companies and industry sectors. 

For example, while it can be harnessed by security professionals to enhance threat detection, vulnerability assessments, and proactive response and defence, Gen AI also enables malicious actors to create more sophisticated attacks – AI-powered tools can generate convincing phishing emails, develop polymorphic malware that evades detection, and even craft deepfakes.

Few industry sectors are more important – and potentially more open to attack – than critical infrastructure, the essential systems and assets that support essential services like public health and safety, energy, national security, transport and more. 

Because of this, critical infrastructure cybersecurity is having to advance at pace to anticipate and thwart the next wave of emerging threats in the Gen AI era. For many in the sector, global tech leader NVIDIA is playing a crucial supporting role. 

Keeping critical infrastructure safe

Critical infrastructure operates in highly complex environments, where the convergence of IT and operational technology (OT), often accelerated by digital transformation, creates a perfect storm of vulnerabilities. Traditional cybersecurity measures are no longer sufficient to address these emerging threats.

In a blog post on its website, NVIDIA discusses the shifting critical infrastructure landscape, discussing how leading OT providers are adopting AI-driven security tools and platforms to deliver real-time threat detection and critical infrastructure protection. 

Several, including Armis, Check Point, CrowdStrike, Deloitte and World Wide Technology recently showcased how they’re adopting NVIDIA’s cybersecurity AI platform at the S4 cybersecurity conference. NVIDIA says that by integrating its platform and taking advantage of the AI-powered technology they are able to help customers bolster critical infrastructure such as energy, utilities and manufacturing facilities against cyber threats. 

In this context, AI helps companies gain far greater and more detailed visibility into their critical infrastructure environments by enabling real-time threat detection. NVIDIA’s platform differs from conventional solutions in that it functions as a virtual security overlay. This inspects network traffic and safeguards host integrity without disrupting operations – critical infrastructure needs as few interruptions or delays as possible. 

NVIDIA’s technology acts as embedded sensors, streaming telemetry data and enabling detailed monitoring of activity, network traffic and application behaviour. 

It says that this combination of AI and advanced computing technology provides exceptional visibility into critical infrastructure environments, achieving robust and adaptive security while delivering operational continuity. This enables cybersecurity professionals to respond swiftly at the edge and across networks. 

Cybersecurity across critical industries

CrowdStrike, which helps secure critical infrastructure like OT and industrial control systems, has collaborated with NVIDIA to boost real-time and AI-powered threat detection and response. “OT environments are under increasing threat, demanding AI-powered security that adapts in real time,” says Raj Rajamani, head of products at CrowdStrike. 

“By integrating NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, we’re extending industry-leading protection to critical infrastructure without disrupting operations – delivering unified protection at the edge and helping organisations stay ahead of modern threats.”

AI is also playing a crucial role in delivering enterprise digital transformation. In this field, Deloitte has been partnering with NVIDIA to help meet the demands of breakthrough technologies that need real-time or granular visibility into data centre networks to defend against evolving threats. 

“Protecting OT and ICS systems is becoming increasingly challenging as organizations embrace digital transformation and interconnected technologies,” explains Dmitry Dudorov, an AI security leader at Deloitte U.K. 

“Harnessing NVIDIA’s cybersecurity AI platform can enable organisations to determine threat detection, enhance resilience and safeguard their infrastructure to accelerate their efforts.”

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