OneLayer, a provider of enterprise security for private LTE and 5G networks, has bagged a $6.5 million equity investment from Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture capital arm of Koch Industries, an investment that comes as private wireless is gaining traction as a means of connecting IoT devices and operational technology hardware across smart factory environments and other industrial settings.
But Koch is not just investing in the Israel-based company; it also will put OneLayer to work securing the private LTE network at the site of a manufacturing subsidiary of Koch Industries.
The investment brings total funds raised by OneLayer to more than $14.5 million.
OneLayer has an end-to-end security platform that integrates with the cellular packet core and the IT network firewalls, asset management tools, and other existing security solutions to provide visibility, context-based segmentation policies, and a zero-trust security approach for both IT and OT devices that are connected to private cellular networks.
Liron Ben-Horin, vice president of systems engineering at OneLayer, further explained to Fierce Electronics, “We use tools such as asset management to have visibility to different assets and devices in the network and be familiar with their attributes to know what operating system they're running, to be familiar with the software version they're using, and what vulnerabilities are associated with that particular model or software version. We use this information to do segmentation and to do policy enforcement.”
That visibility also allows OneLayer to detect anomalies in individual devices, and to isolate these devices in the event of a security attack, capabilities that will become increasingly valuable as more devices are connected via wireless in industrial settings.
As these private wireless networks become more common, many of them will be 5G-based or quickly evolve to 5G, which is more secure by nature than other wireless options, but not enough for customers to disregard a more layered, context-based approach to security.
“5G on its own is a very good starting point because it is much more secure in the sense that it has encryption built in on the radio level… and it adds another aspect that's currently missing for most wireless technologies, which is the entire concept of authentication,” Ben Horin said, adding that integrating with software-defined 5G core systems from companies like Ericsson and Mavenir is that allows OneLayer to support policy control functions to a greater degree.
The KDT investment brings total funds raised by OneLayer to more than $14.5 million. Koch Industries is exploring the use of private cellular networks to enable connectivity for autonomous vehicles with real-time compute demands over high bandwidth and coverage for laptops and tablets, enabling predictable coverage for IT and OT devices.
KDT’s investment will help OneLayer address more verticals, enhance the company’s cyber lab capabilities, expand the company’s commercial reach through its global ecosystem and channel partners, and to fuel the company’s overall sales and marketing efforts.
"Private cellular networks introduce new technologies and potential threat vectors that could impact our business. We want to enable the benefits of cellular networks while maintaining visibility and segmentation policies in a zero-trust model," said Matthew Stucky, enterprise security architect at Koch Industries. "We look forward to working with OneLayer to build security into our cellular network while optimizing business outcomes."