Rockwell Automation to acquire cybersecurity firm Verve Industrial Protection

Industrial automation provider Rockwell Automation Inc. is continuing to expand its portfolio of supply chain digitalization tools, announcing today that it has agreed to acquire Verve Industrial Protection, a provider of cybersecurity software for asset inventory and vulnerability management systems.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal comes as Rockwell says companies continually add hardware and software alongside legacy equipment in plants, leaving many organizations struggling to manage and protect those assets across an expanded attack surface and increasing the potential for cyberattacks. At the same time, the industry is coping with shortages of the resources and talent needed to implement and manage operational technology (OT) cybersecurity programs.

As a solution, the Verve Security Center platform enables real-time asset inventory, vulnerability management, and risk remediation that will strengthen Rockwell’s current offerings and address these issues, the company said.

“The foundation of OT cybersecurity starts with visibility into assets – you can’t protect what you don’t know you have. This continues to be a critical challenge for manufacturers,” Matt Fordenwalt, Rockwell’s senior vice president, Lifecycle Services, said in a release. “With the Verve acquisition, our customers can quickly assess their assets, prioritize risk, and apply countermeasures to mitigate vulnerabilities – all within a single platform. The addition of Verve to our suite of solutions allows customers to further build resiliency and continuously improve the security, safety, and availability of their operations.”

The announcement follows Milwaukee-based Rockwell’s move last month to acquire autonomous mobile robot (AMR) vendor Clearpath Robotics as part of a strategy to accelerate its end-to-end “autonomous production logistics” solutions to drive more efficient manufacturing operations.