ARAMIS, led by Atos Worldgrid, selected as a world-class R&D initiative by the French government programme called "Investments for the Future"

The ARAMIS consortium (Robust Architecture for Critical Industrial Control System Infrastructure) was nominated to be funded by the Investments for the Future program and endorsed by the global competitive cluster, Minalogic.

The ARAMIS consortium is composed by key players with a unique expertise in industrial control systems and cyber security:

  • Seclab, an innovative business which designs and markets a unique physical network segregation technology,
  • Grenoble Universities chosen for their expertise in the field of encryption and software engineering,
  • CEA LETI, a research institute for electronics and information technologies, and the benchmark in trust anchors**, renowned for its CESTI certification for electronic components and onboard software,
  • Atos Worldgrid, world leader in Smart Energy, and publisher and integrator of industrial control systems (SCADA*) for Critical Operators, is leading the consortium.

The ARAMIS project involves the development of an innovative system capable of bringing an unrivalled level of security to existing or new industrial control system architectures. The innovation consists of physically partitioning networks and filtering data exchanges to reject all data flows identified as unauthorised and, thus, potentially malicious.


The specific aim of the ARAMIS project involves supplying these functionalities in a single, robust system which can be implemented without impacting on applications in the existing industrial control system, while simultaneously providing protection from attacks, whether generated externally, via the internet, or internally.


Philippe Vannier, Executive Vice-President, Big Data & Security, and CTO of the Atos Group says: "The cyber security of industrial control-command systems, and particularly of Critical Operators, is a key concern of players in this field (operators, integrators, hardware manufacturers) and of government authorities, particularly of ANSSI, the French national agency for IT systems security. Interconnectivity with other networks and through the internet is a source of value added but also of vulnerability. Our ambition is for ARAMIS to mark a turning point in the cyber security of critical infrastructures."


The security of industrial control systems is one of the priority areas of the "digital security" call for proposals, organised under the Investments for the Future initiative steered by the Commissariat-General for Investment. The selected proposals aim to bring innovative and high-performance solutions to confront the latest threats to these systems.


The ARAMIS proposal involves the development of a system that enables data exchange between networks with differing security levels by providing physical isolation while preserving each network's respective security with a trust anchor**, and is capable of filtering the industrial protocols and data exchanged (business-specific aspect) for intrinsic safety.


ARAMIS has been developed based on the most rigorous standards in force in the fields of cyber security and systems security. This system addresses the principles of partitioning industrial IT systems by level of criticality, as described in IEC standard 62443 and ISO 27019 on the energy sector, and by ANSSI in its recommendations concerning the cyber security of industrial systems and the secure management of IT systems (DAT-NT-22/ANSSI/SDE/NP of 20 February 2015): "to protect data flows, it is necessary to simultaneously implement partitioning, filtering, encryption and inbound and outbound network traffic authentication."


* SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition): a large-scale remote management system, enabling real-time processing of a high volume of telemetric data and remote supervision of technical installations.


** Trust anchor: The trust anchor can be equated with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), that is, a high-security hardware component that stores and manipulates sensitive data (cryptographic keys, certificates, signatures), with complementary functions, such as authenticity guarantee, but also providing a guarantee of the integrity and authenticity of a variety of data exchanges (messages and communications) within the system.

About the Investments for the Future initiative


The Investments for the Future initiative has received €47 billion of funding, of which €33 billion have already been allocated, since 2010, to six major strategic areas to support tomorrow's France:

  • Higher education and training
  • Research and its implementation
  • Industrial modernisation
  • Sustainable development
  • The digital economy
  • Health and biotechnologies

The Investments for the Future initiative is steered by the Commissariat-General for Investment.

About d'Atos


Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with 2014 pro forma annual revenue of €10 billion and 86,000 employees in 66 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defence, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media & Utilities, Public Sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation.
Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, and Worldline.

About Atos Worldgrid


Atos Worldgrid, an international subsidiary of Atos, is a unique player in smart energy. With over 30 years experience, it delivers sophisticated integration projects and real time Smart Energy solutions to Energy & Utilities companies across the power, water, oil & gas value chains. Building on an unprecedented track record in the Energy & Utilities market, it has the capability to cover all business critical systems across the entire Energy & Utilities value chain from production, to transport, distribution and supply. It has in particular equipped 70 nuclear power units with its Supervision and Command & Control software in France, UK, Russia and China and delivered the world's largest smart metering system.

About CEA-Leti (France)


By creating innovation and transferring it to industry, Leti is the bridge between basic research and production of micro- and nanotechnologies that improve the lives of people around the world. Backed by its portfolio of 2,200 patents, Leti partners with large industrials, SMEs and startups to tailor advanced solutions that strengthen their competitive positions. It has launched more than 50 startups. Its 8,000m² of new-generation cleanroom space feature 200mm and 300mm wafer processing of micro and nano solutions for applications ranging from space to smart devices. Leti's staff of more than 1,700 includes 200 assignees from partner companies. Leti is based in Grenoble, France, and has offices in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Tokyo. Follow us on www.leti.fr and @CEA_Leti.

About Seclab


Founded in 2011, Seclab is an innovative and respected player in the cyber security space particularly in critical infrastructures. The company is based in Montpellier (France) and San Francisco (USA).
Seclab has developed a unique segregation solution, already in use by Critical Operators. It enables the controlled transfer of data between two networks while maintaining their segregation.
http://www.seclab-solutions.com


The Université Joseph Fourier is a world-class leading scientific and medical university. Featuring in all of the major international rankings (Top 150 World Universities - Shanghai Ranking), the UJF offers initial and further education for jobs of the future in a wide range of fields: Physics and Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, Biology, Medicine and Pharmacy, Engineering and Technology, Earth Science and Astronomy/Astrophysics, Environmental Studies, Geography and Territorial Sciences, as well as the Science of Physical and Sports Activities.Présentation de l'Université Joseph Fourier


Atos
Anne de Beaumont
+33 6 23 76 19 41
anne.debeaumont@atos.net

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