MHI and NTT Conclude Agreement on Joint Development of Security Technologies, for Application in Critical Infrastructure Control Systems, etc.

Tokyo, March 17, 2016 - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) have concluded an agreement on joint research in cyber security technologies applicable to critical infrastructure control systems, etc. The two companies will join forces in verifying the effectiveness of security protection measures for a wide range of fields, including power generation systems.

In recent years critical infrastructure has increasingly come under cyber attack, bringing urgency and crucial importance to the need for measures to counter such invasions. In response, MHI and NTT have been pursuing the development of security technologies applicable to control systems, etc. Now, MHI has opened a new "Cyber Lab" in Tokyo to serve as a base for further development and verification of the results achieved in the two companies' research programs to date. The facility also uses products of FFRI, Inc., an information security company in Japan, and others.

At the new Cyber Lab, MHI and NTT will jointly develop state-of-the-art technologies based on the security engine resulting from NTT's current R&D program. Among the new targets will be technology to detect, in real time, unknown attacks of types that have been difficult to detect applying existing measures, and technology enabling countermeasures to be implemented without halting the operation of critical infrastructure. Within the lab, technology verification will be carried out using simulated models of actual products.

With the signing of their agreement on joint research, MHI and NTT will combine their technologies, with MHI contributing its highly reliable and secure control technologies cultivated in its defense and aerospace businesses and NTT inputting its cutting-edge security technologies. By working closely together, the two companies will pursue the optimal technologies for control systems.