The advance of the Internet of Things is inevitable, but question marks remain over just how safe these ‘things’ will be, given the myriad of vulnerabilities in the networks and protocols linking everything together. To combat this threat, industrial giant GE has just acquired the Canadian cybersecurity firm Wurldtech.

While the likes of Google prefer to play with Glasses and Smart Thermostats, GE is intent on dominating the Industrial Internet – where industrial machines morph into the Internet of Things. What begun as an in-house initiative to connect all of the products GE makes has since transformed into a worldwide industry that’s backed by tech giants like IBM, AT&T and Cisco.

But if there’s one crucial area that’s paramount to the Industrial Internet’s success, it’s the question of security. The billions of chips, sensors and gateways that connect the industrial world together are riddled with vulnerabilities, and this security gap is something that urgently needs to be plugged. Wurldtech has absolutely nothing to do with the threats we usually hear about – like those affecting consumer devices and gadgets. Instead, it supplies security solutions to big industry customers, such as oil refineries and airlines. But Bill Ruh, head of GE’s world technology division, told TechCrunch the plan is to extend this capability and harness Wurldtech’s solutions to protect all of its sensor networks.

As Industrial Internet networks become more prevalent and more critical to keep industries ticking over, they’ll become a big target for cyberattackers. That’s where Wurldtech comes in – the company employs a two-pronged approach to securing networks, its CEO Neil McDonnell told TechCrunch. First, they carry out tests to discover vulnerabilities within systems, certifying those which are found to be safe. Second, it designs specific security solutions for every kind of infrastructure – so, for example, any solution for wind turbines would also need to defend each individual machine, plus the electricity grid and main control systems.

According to McDonnell, one big problem is that those who operate industrial equipment aren’t especially clued up when it comes to IT security (they’re trained to run the machines, not protect them). He says the Industrial Internet will need to adopt what he calls “operational technology security”, rather than conventional IT security practices.

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