In this interview, a cybersecurity expert from a construction company highlights the challenges and priorities facing the industrial sector, particularly in the context of constantly evolving cyberthreats. Industrial companies, whose websites and information systems are exposed to high risks, must adopt robust, multi-layered protection strategies. Advanced technologies, such as Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) and solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI), play a central role in ensuring the security of web applications and protecting sensitive data against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
Here, the expert also describes the benefits of OGO Security’s WAF solution, which features quantitative and qualitative analysis capabilities that enhance understanding of attacks and threats. Its integration with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) systems enables the centralization and correlation of security data, optimizing the detection of suspicious behavior and proactive incident management. Thanks to features such as a clear and intuitive dashboard, the OGO solution provides security managers with high visibility, facilitating effective and strategic cyber risk management.
What are your main cybersecurity challenges, and how do you address the protection of your websites and data?
“Our priority is to effectively protect our many websites and the data they contain. We have a variety of sites to secure, ranging from showcase sites that represent the company’s image to more critical business sites containing sensitive data. Our approach is to implement a multi-layered security strategy, a key component of which is the use of a WAF to protect our web applications against cyberattacks.”
Implementing a WAF (Web Application Firewall) cybersecurity solution is strategic for industrial companies that manage web applications vulnerable to cyberattacks. WAFs are designed to analyze web traffic and identify abnormal behavior in order to block intrusion attempts and unauthorized access. By filtering HTTP/S requests, a WAF protects against specific attacks such as SQL injections, XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks, and remote code execution. In the industrial sector, where large amounts of technical, customer, and even production data pass through web applications, this type of protection ensures rigorous control over access and the exchange of sensitive data.
Industrial companies’ websites are often diverse, ranging from customer service platforms to sites critical to internal operations. Protecting these sites has become a key aspect of regulatory compliance, especially since many companies in the sector must adhere to strict cybersecurity standards, such as the GDPR in Europe or NIST in the United States. The WAF contributes to this compliance by providing a technical framework capable of meeting data protection requirements – a particularly relevant issue given the rise in cyberattacks targeting the industrial sector, largely due to the industry’s heavy reliance on digital tools and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Why did you choose to partner with OGO Security for your web security project?
“First, their AI-based WAF solution offers dynamic protection without requiring complex manual configuration, unlike traditional WAFs based on static rules. This AI-driven approach enables real-time adaptation to new threats, which is particularly important in today’s constantly evolving cyberattack landscape.
Second, the OGO solution offers advanced reporting and data visualization capabilities for security data. These features provide our CISO with a clear and actionable overview of our security posture, which is essential for strategic decision-making.
Finally, the fact that OGO Security is a French company was a deciding factor. This ensures better compliance with local regulations regarding data protection and IT security.”
A French WAF cybersecurity solution offers significant advantages for industrial companies, particularly in terms of regulatory compliance and the management of sensitive data. By choosing a French solution, French manufacturers benefit from enhanced compliance with European laws, such as the GDPR, while meeting specific requirements regarding digital sovereignty. This compliance simplifies the protection of personal data, which is particularly sensitive in technology-intensive industrial sectors. Furthermore, a French solution can quickly adapt to changes in national and European cybersecurity standards, thereby ensuring that the infrastructure remains aligned with regulatory requirements.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into a WAF provides adaptive protection against evolving cyber threats—a critical advantage for manufacturers’ critical infrastructure. Unlike traditional WAFs based on static rules, AI-powered solutions are capable of analyzing large volumes of data in real time and identifying anomalies that indicate malicious behavior. In an industrial setting, where responsiveness is essential to protecting critical systems, this technology enables proactive threat detection and automated responses to attacks, thereby ensuring business continuity. AI also enhances the effectiveness of analyses by reducing the false-positive rate, which minimizes unnecessary disruptions and optimizes security.
Can you describe the benefits and results observed following the implementation of the OGO solution?
“Implementing OGO has given us greater visibility into our websites’ traffic. We are now able to precisely quantify the number of malicious requests blocked each day. For example, out of a sample of 20,000 requests analyzed in a single day, approximately 200 were identified as malicious and blocked. This depth of information and analysis allows us to better understand the nature and origin of the threats we face.
Another significant advantage is the integration of OGO with our Sekoia SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) solution. This synergy allows us to centralize and correlate security data from multiple sources, thereby improving our ability to detect and respond to complex threats.”
A WAF cybersecurity solution capable of providing quantitative and qualitative information about website attacks gives manufacturers a better understanding of the nature and severity of the threats facing their systems. By precisely quantifying blocked malicious requests and analyzing their characteristics, a WAF can generate key metrics on the most common types of attacks, trends in malicious traffic, and the geographic or industry profiles of attackers. This type of in-depth intelligence helps industrial companies tailor their defense strategies to the identified threats and strengthen their defenses where risks are highest. In addition, qualitative analysis helps identify specific attack vectors and the techniques used, thereby providing a better understanding of hackers’ motivations and methods.
Combining this data with a trace aggregator, such as a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system, greatly enhances incident detection and response capabilities for industrial companies. A SIEM continuously analyzes security events from multiple sources, including the WAF, and performs real-time data correlation to identify complex attack patterns and anomalous behavior across the entire system. This process of centralizing and correlating security data accelerates the detection of advanced threats and enhances incident investigation. In industrial environments where infrastructure is critical and diverse, this synergy between the WAF and the SIEM optimizes response times and the accuracy of defensive measures, contributing to a proactive and better-coordinated security posture.
Which features of the OGO solution do you find most beneficial?
“The OGO dashboard is particularly useful for our team. It provides a real-time view of critical security metrics, allowing us to effectively monitor our security posture and respond quickly to anomalies. Its ease of use and the clarity of the information presented make it an indispensable tool for our daily monitoring.”
A clear and intuitive dashboard is a major asset for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and security teams. A centralized, user-friendly dashboard facilitates access to essential security information, allowing users to see at a glance intrusion attempts, critical alerts, and the performance of the various layers of protection. In industrial environments, where many stakeholders may interact with security data, an intuitive dashboard helps teams collaborate effectively and make quick decisions, thereby strengthening incident management and vulnerability analysis.
If you had to summarize your experience with OGO Security, what would you say?
“OGO Security stands out as one of the few French companies offering such an advanced AI-based WAF solution. Its innovative approach to application security, combined with its ease of use and effectiveness, makes it a leading solution in the French market. The protection it offers, along with its analytics and reporting capabilities, meets our needs for securing our web applications very well.”
