We spoke to Jules Farrow-Lesnianski about IT/OT Security.
Dear Jules, how would you describe Sapphire in 3 quick-witted words?
IT/OT Converged Cybersecurity
Please introduce yourself briefly and tell us something about your background.
Jules Farrow-Lesnianski, OT Director at Sapphire. Joined in September 2023 due to the acquisition of my company, Awen Collective, where I spent the previous five years building OT cyber software solutions to make society safer.
What distinguishes Sapphire?
Sapphire is the only 100% UK owned and operated IT and OT cyber services provider.
How does Sapphire help companies?
At Sapphire, we’re more than just a cybersecurity company, we are a trusted partner and an extension of your team. We understand the immense pressures your security teams and leaders face. We’re committed to ensuring you have a trusted advisor by your side, offering the guidance and expertise to support you where its most needed.
What do you see differently from prevailing opinions in the field of cyber security?
The OT cyber market is still at an early stage of maturity, with organisations across the globe still struggling with gaining initial visibility of their OT environments and the inherent operational risk that cyber incidents pose to them. Whilst many innovative and valuable software solutions have come to market, a large proportion of organisations are not yet in a position to gain the value they can offer. At Sapphire, we are helping from the ground up, building a holistic IT/OT cyber security programme that identifies and mitigates measurable operational cyber risk across converging environments.
How do you differentiate from OT cyber solutions providers?
We address the breadth of the IT/OT converged environment, utilising both our own software solutions (Profile™, Dot™ and Optics™) and those from our partner portfolio (including Microsoft, Tenable, Radiflow, Cyolo and more) to identify operational cyber risk and build solutions that work around the unique constraints often found within OT environments.
What’s next – what’s on your technical roadmap, what are your plans for 2024 and beyond?
We launched our converged IT/OT SOC in 2024, providing real-time 24/7 visibility of 100% of our clients IT & OT infrastructure. In response to the call to action by the UK NCSC, we are building an OT incident response capability to support clients to quickly recover from and identify and mitigate the root cause of OT cyber incidents.
How do you see the OT cyber industry developing in the future?
What was once seen as a niche subset of cyber security has become an entire smaller-scale cyber industry within itself. With OT cyber solutions mapping across the entire NIST Framework from identify, through protect, detect and respond, it’s vital these solutions have applicability across the IT/OT divide as those environments come ever closer and the grey areas between them grow. Being able to offer holistic solutions which solve business risk across all areas of technology is a key facet of the cyber offerings of the future.
