Honeywell to acquire industrial cybersecurity software company Nextnine

Honeywell has signed an agreement to purchase Nextnine, a privately held provider of security management solutions and technologies for industrial cybersecurity. The addition of Nextnine’s security solutions and secure remote service capabilities will enhance Honeywell’s existing range of cybersecurity technologies and increase Honeywell’s Connected Plant cybersecurity customer base.

Nextnine’s flagship technology, ICS Shield, protects industrial sites from cybersecurity attacks and enables remote monitoring of assets. It complements Honeywell’s cybersecurity portfolio with a solution that is used at more than 6200 sites globally across the oil and gas, utility, chemical, mining and manufacturing sectors. Previously, ICS Shield had to be deployed separately for each control system vendor, resulting in multiple and separate installations at a single customer site. With this acquisition, customers will be able to deploy and operate a single system, thereby simplifying and better securing their entire site with Honeywell’s capability to provide multivendor solutions.

Founded in 1998, Nextnine has been backed to date by Infinity VC, XT Hi-Tech and several other prominent investors.

“Each day, the number of attempted cyber attacks on industrial facilities and critical infrastructure around the world increases,” said Vimal Kapur, president of Honeywell Process Solutions. “This acquisition shows our ongoing commitment to providing our customers with a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity solutions to protect and defend their industrial control systems and process control networks. Honeywell’s extensive global reach will increase Nextnine’s availability to a broader range of customers.”

Nextnine’s security solutions also will be a key enabler of Honeywell Connected Plant, in which cybersecurity is a critical part of that program.

Honeywell has continued to increase its industrial cybersecurity offerings. Two such solutions are Risk Manager, a solution to proactively monitor, measure and manage industrial cybersecurity risks, and Secure Media Exchange (SMX), which protects plants against threats from removable media such as USB flash drives.