Archive for Xona

Xona announces the general availability of Xona Platform v5.4.2

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 5, 2025 by itnerd

Xona today announced the general availability of Xona Platform v5.4.2, a major update that extends centralized control, unified policy enforcement, and scalable auditability across globally distributed operational environments.

Building on its proven foundation of secure, zero-trust access for OT, IT, and hybrid networks, Xona’s v5.4.2 release introduces new Xona Centralizer management features to extend existing enterprise-grade visibility and control across multiple Xona deployments. Combined with cross-gateway access groups, expanded identity provider support, and enhanced session governance, the release equips critical infrastructure organizations to scale secure access—without adding complexity or risk.

Platform Enhancements in v5.4.2

The Xona Platform v5.4.2 introduces key capabilities for managing secure access in complex, multi-site environments:

  • Xona Centralizer: A new centralized management interface that enables real- time oversight of users, roles, and sessions across multiple deployments— eliminating silos and simplifying governance.
  • Cross-Gateway Group Management: Administrators can define access groups once and apply them universally across distributed gateways, reducing policy drift and configuration overhead.
  • Federated Identity Provider Support: Native multi-domain SAML and LDAP integration simplifies IT/OT convergence and strengthens identity-based zero trust enforcement.
  • Enhanced Role and Time-Based Controls: Fine-grained policy management enables precise access governance by user, site, role, and schedule.
  • Centralized Logging and Session Metadata: Unified activity records and session logs improve incident response and simplify compliance with NERC CIP, IEC 62443, and TSA SD2 mandates.
  • Enhanced Connections: WebGL has been added as an option for connections allowing customers to take advantage of 3D graphics displays from remote assets.
  • Multi-monitor VNC Support: Users can now leverage remote multi-monitor setups with VNC with pan/zoom to view their applications across multiple displays.
  • Improved UX and Collaboration Tools: Streamlined UI, lower session latency, and enhanced session handoffs support fast, secure collaboration between field users and remote OEMs.
  • Customer Branding: Ability for customers to have customized branding with company logo and favicon support.
  • Cybersecurity Integrations: File uploads can now be automatically checked against the PaloAlto WildFire cloud malware scanner prior to introduction to connected assets.
  • International Keyboard Support: Customers can use their localized keyboard when connecting to Windows based assets.

Scaling Secure Access for the Modern CI Enterprise

As critical infrastructure organizations expand operations across regions and third-party ecosystems, the need for secure, scalable access control is more urgent than ever. According to recent industry data, more than 88% of industrial organizations cite insecure remote access as a top cyber risk, while ransomware attacks on OT environments have surged over 80% year-over-year.

Xona’s v5.4.2 release directly addresses these trends, helping customers:

  • Eliminate the need for vulnerable legacy tools like VPNs and jump servers in OT environments with a modern, zero-trust access model purpose-built for critical infrastructure.
  • Maintain consistent policy enforcement across all users—employees, OEMs, contractors—regardless of location.
  • Strengthen compliance readiness with real-time logging, video session recording, and centralized audit controls.

Trusted by Industry Leaders

Leading organizations across multiple industries trust Xona’s platform. Global giants such as GE, Baker Hughes, and Mitsubishi Corporation have adopted Xona’s secure access solutions to protect their critical infrastructure.

One of Xona’s long-standing customers in the power generation sector commented, “Xona has allowed our lean IT team to manage and troubleshoot issues remotely across all our sites. This has reduced the need for costly on-site visits and improved our overall operational efficiency.”

Why Xona Matters in Today’s Market

As critical infrastructure industries face increasing digital threats and navigate an evolving regulatory landscape, secure, simple access solutions like Xona’s are more critical than ever. The Xona Platform secures critical OT, IT, and cloud environments and supports compliance with leading standards including IEC 62443, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), and NERC-CIP by providing required access controls, auditability, and governance capabilities. Xona provides auditability and governance features that simplify the compliance process, all while reducing the operational burden on IT and OT teams.

Take a First Look or Another Look at Xona

For organizations seeking to improve their OT security, now is the time to consider Xona.

Visit the website at http://www.xonasystems.com to learn more about how the Xona Platform can transform your approach to secure access. Schedule a demo to see firsthand how Xona enables a zero-trust architecture that can reduce your attack surface, simplify operations, and protect your critical assets from today’s evolving threats.

Xona and Dicofra Partner to Deliver Secure Access for Critical Infrastructure Across Mexico, Latin America, and the United States

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 22, 2025 by itnerd

Xona today announced a new channel partnership with Dicofra Cyber Security, a leading OT cybersecurity solutions provider based in Mexico. The partnership enables Dicofra to deliver, deploy, and support Xona’s secure access platform for critical infrastructure operators throughout Mexico, Latin America, and the United States.

As demand for secure remote access solutions accelerates across Latin America’s energy, utilities, manufacturing, and transportation sectors, this partnership expands access with a purpose-built platform that enables operational teams, OEMs, and third-party vendors to connect to industrial assets—without exposing critical systems to insecure endpoints or compromising uptime.

As an official Xona channel partner, Dicofra will provide sales, deployment, and tier-one technical support for the Xona Platform, leveraging their local engineering teams and regional presence. Customers in Mexico, Latin America, and the U.S. will benefit from onboarding, training, and support—alongside Dicofra’s OT cybersecurity offerings, including threat detection, managed services, and regulatory compliance advisory.

Dicofra will also offer the Xona Platform as a managed service, enabling flexible deployment as a standalone secure access solution or integrated with platforms such as Nozomi Networks, enhancing both access visibility and OT threat detection. This approach is designed to reduce the cyber risk of VPNs, jump servers, and legacy remote access tools—while accelerating digital transformation across industries.

Xona and Forescout Partner to Deliver Secure Remote Access and OT Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure

Posted in Commentary with tags , on June 10, 2025 by itnerd

Xona, the leading provider of secure access for critical infrastructure, today announced a strategic partnership with Forescout Technologies, a global cybersecurity leader. The integration between the Xona Platform and the Forescout 4D Platform™ will give industrial and critical infrastructure operators secure, policy-enforced access to operational systems, backed by continuous network visibility and automated enforcement.

As threats to industrial control systems intensify and compliance requirements become more demanding, the integration of Forescout’s continuous device visibility, intelligence, and control with Xona’s secure remote access capabilities enables operators to modernize security without compromising uptime, safety, or regulatory posture. This partnership ensures that every user and device interaction is authenticated, authorized, and audited—delivering secure, compliant, and uninterrupted operations across critical infrastructure.

Better Together: Unified Access, Visibility, and Control

The best of breed platforms combine the unique strengths of both organizations:

  • Zero-Trust Access with Reduced Operational Complexity: Xona delivers secure, browser-based access to critical systems without requiring VPNs, clients, or network tunnels. When paired with Forescout’s real-time asset discovery, security teams can dynamically identify and import assets to configure identity-level controls. This ensures users only access authorized assets and systems, when they’re authorized to access them.
  • Context-Aware Policy Enforcement: Forescout’s dynamic risk scoring and segmentation logic automatically influence access permissions and session behavior inside Xona. High-risk assets can be isolated, and user access can be denied or revoked in real time, preventing lateral movement and enforcing least privilege access across the OT environment.
  • Built-In Compliance and Session Auditing: Xona’s high-fidelity session recording, file transfer governance, and policy-based controls are now enriched with live network telemetry from Forescout, simplifying audit prep for standards like NERC CIP, IEC 62443, TSA SD2, and OTCC-1. Every session is visible, controlled, and accounted for.
  • Secure Vendor and Third-Party Access Without Exposure: Together, Xona and Forescout eliminate the traditional blind spots around remote access. Contractors, OEMs, and internal users can gain time-limited access with full oversight, without ever exposing underlying network layers or requiring standing credentials.

This integration is purpose-built to support energy and utilities, oil and gas, water, transportation and logistics, and healthcare organizations to drive operational resilience.

Xona Launches Secure Access Management Platform To Safeguard Critical Infrastructure

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 21, 2025 by itnerd

Xona Systems, a leading provider of secure access management solutions for critical systems and operational technology (OT) environments, today announced the launch of its new Xona Platform. Designed to provide simple user access without allowing insecure user endpoints from connecting to critical assets, the platform is redefining how industries such as utilities, oil & gas, and manufacturing approach secure access for remote workers, 3rd parties, and onsite employees.

As companies face increasing threats to their critical IT, OT, and cloud-based systems and tighter regulatory compliance mandates, the Xona Platform delivers unmatched security and ease of use, offering an ideal solution bringing together OT managers, CISOs, and IT teams.

Addressing the Number One Threat to Critical Infrastructure

As organizations become more connected and complex, the security of critical systems has been eroded. Reducing this connectivity and complexity is now a top priority. OT environments, in particular, face unique challenges, with legacy IT solutions like VPNs, originally designed for privacy, not security, failing to provide the necessary security and operational continuity.

Xona’s insight is clear: the real challenge lies in providing secure user access to critical systems, without allowing their insecure, transient endpoints from connecting to those critical systems. This approach simplifies user access deployment, administration, and usage, while reducing the critical system attack surface – by preventing up to a 100% of insecure endpoints from connecting – this eliminates the number 1 threat to critical infrastructure.

Key Highlights of the Xona Platform

The Xona Platform stands out in the cybersecurity landscape by offering key benefits like:

  • Identity-based access management for all users including both onsite and remote, and employees, 3rd party vendors, and OEM partners.
  • Disconnected access that eliminates 100% of the insecure endpoints from directly connecting to critical systems reducing the attack surface and safeguarding critical assets from ransomware and malware.
  • Agnostic overlay design that is both technology agnostic and adaptable and doesn’t require network architecture changes, allowing for flexible deployments on premise, at different layers, and using different device options.
  • Zero footprint, best in class user experience using any modern browser to get simple 3-click access to critical systems from anywhere – with no clients, agents, plugins, native software, or cloud access required.
  • Real-time auditability and control with continuous session logging and recording that helps admins simplify access governance.
  • Meets regulatory requirements allowing organizations to address standards and requirements including IEC 62443, NERC CIP, NIST 800-53, FIPS 140-2, RMF, TSA Security Directives, Saudi NCA OTCC-1:2022, and others.
  • Supports the integrated enterprise with integrations for OT and IT identity providers (IdP), SSO, MFA, ZTNA, secrets management, OT asset management, business intelligence, and IT service management tools.
  • Quick and easy deployment and administration. The platform can be deployed in as little as 20 minutes without network changes or complex configurations.

Trusted by Industry Leaders

Leading organizations across multiple industries trust Xona’s platform. Global giants such as GE, Baker Hughes, and Mitsubishi Corporation have adopted Xona’s secure access solutions to protect their critical infrastructure.

One of Xona’s long-standing customers in the energy sector commented, “Xona’s platform has transformed how we manage secure access across our critical infrastructure. It’s the easiest and most impactful tool we’ve implemented in the last year.”

Why Xona Matters in Today’s Market

As critical infrastructure industries face increasing digital threats and navigate an evolving regulatory landscape, secure, simple access solutions like Xona’s are more critical than ever. The platform secures critical OT, IT, and cloud environments and helps companies meet industry standards, including IEC 62443, the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), and NERC-CIP compliance requirements. Xona provides auditability and governance features that simplify the compliance process, all while reducing the operational burden on IT and OT teams.

Take a First Look or Another Look at Xona

For organizations seeking to improve their OT security, now is the time to consider Xona: www.xonasystems.com