How Netsecurity helps with 24/7 cybersecurity
When the water supply stops, society stops. That's why IVAR IKS has put digital security high on the agenda.With increased threats and new legislation in force, they chose Netsecurity as their partner for security monitoring and incident management.
IVAR IKS delivers one of the most critical societal functions we have: clean water to 12 municipalities and 360,000 households in the Rogaland region. They are also responsible for wastewater treatment and recycling services. With more stringent threat assessments from the National Security Authority and the introduction of the Digital Security Act and NIS2, it was necessary to strengthen both capacity and expertise in cyber security.
- Water supply is not just critical to society, it's critical to life. Without water, both the population and emergency preparedness come to a standstill," says Svein Roar Aas, who works as a security advisor at IVAR IKS.
In 2024, he was brought in to structure and strengthen the company's digital security work. One of the tasks was to map the status. One of the methods used was a check against NSM's basic principles for ICT security and a thorough risk assessment.
- "We discovered that we had a lot of logs and data, but limited capacity to analyze them. It was decided to bring in an external partner for monitoring and incident management," says Aas.
As an inter-municipal company, IVAR IKS is subject to the Public Procurement Act. The regulations are designed to ensure transparency, competition and equal treatment - but for companies that operate critical infrastructure, it can create a serious challenge: In order to provide suppliers with a qualified basis, it is often necessary to share detailed descriptions of networks, systems and architecture. This type of information can pose a security risk if it falls into the wrong hands.
- "Procurement regulations require transparency, but we can't risk sensitive information about critical infrastructure being disseminated to many players. It's a demanding balance," says Aas.
IVAR therefore started with a broad market dialog with several suppliers, and ultimately chose to go for direct procurement. The reason for this was both the need to act quickly in a heightened threat environment - and the need to minimize the spread of information about its own systems. This was an important premise for the choice of Netsecurity as a partner .
Brage Roalkvam is account manager for IVAR IKS at Netsecurity
When the decision was made, it wasn't just about price and formal requirements. IVAR needed a partner they could trust - one that had the necessary OT expertise, the right certifications and was already familiar with IVAR IKS's infrastructure. Netsecurity met all these criteria, and was also able to contribute to a quick start-up without spreading sensitive information to several players.
- Netsecurity stood out in several areas. They had already carried out assignments for us, including penetration testing, ROS analyses and threat assessments. This gave us confidence in both their expertise and ability to implement. At the same time, they had the right certification and documented OT expertise," says Aas.
Svein Roar Aas of IVAR IKS together with Tor Ommund Ljosland of SecureNOK
The collaboration with Netsecurity involves security monitoring and incident management in IVAR's OT infrastructure, supported by Secure-NOK's technology for log collection and traffic analysis.
- "The onboarding has been very good. Netsecurity involves both operations managers and operators, and we have regular status meetings. We see them as a partner, not just a supplier. For us, it's important that this is an interaction in which we build expertise internally while strengthening our monitoring," says Aas.
Candidates for improvement have emerged during the onboarding process. These have been dealt with on an ongoing basis and the necessary security measures have been implemented to remove potential risks.
A team of specialists from both Netsecurity and Secure-NOK assists IVAR IKS in securing the water supply
Netsecurity stood out in several areas. This gave us confidence in both their expertise and ability to implement. At the same time, they had the right certification and documented OT expertise.
