Ansaldo Energia and Leonardo: a cyber security partnership

Ansaldo Energia and Leonardo: a cyber security partnership

Subsidiary company CDP Equity has signed an agreement with the Aerospace, Defence and Security sector global leader to guarantee the protection of its production facilities and to contribute to the development of new initiatives in the field of innovation and Industry 4.0

Contributing to the distribution of cyber security technology for infrastructure and electricity grids, in a climate dominated by great technological changes. This is the objective of the agreement signed between Ansaldo Energia, a company owned by the CDP Group through CDP Equity, and Leonardo, a global player in the Aerospace, Defence and Security sectors.

The agreement, in particular, will allow the leading Power Generation company to guarantee the safety of its production facilities against the threats from the digital ecosystem: Indeed, Leonardo will share its expertise in the field of cyber security for infrastructure protection and to guarantee the physical and logical security of energy systems. This support is also essential to finalise evolutionary projects of Ansaldo Energia, such as Lighthouse Plant and the Start Competence Centre Start 4.0 for the Security and Optimisation of Strategic Infrastructures. They represent two initiatives of great value, highlighting the focus on technological development and process innovation. Indeed, the subsidiary company of the CDP Group has in recent years, given its digital transformation process a high priority, applying the main technology of Industry Plan 4.0 to its products and related processes.

In this context, the partnership with Leonardo is undisputed valuable, because it allows the implementation of highly innovative solutions to be replicated in the Lighthouse Plant projects and the Centre Start 4.0. This mission of this latest initiative, in particular, will be to identify new technical and technological solutions, develop experimentation and validating methods and put in place a permanent training structure on security processes of Strategic Infrastructures 4.0 in the sectors identified (Energy, Transport, Water, Production, Ports).

The new Competence Centre will be a structure of excellence, aimed at the managers of critical infrastructure in the energy sector, with the involvement of the Liguria Region (through Liguria Digital), the Cnr, the University of Genoa, the Italian Institute of Technology and other bodies in the region such as Rina - the Institute of Advanced Technologies - and the Iren Group.

Ansaldo's commitment to implementing solutions related to Industry 4.0 is particularly important for the entire Italian production sector. Indeed, the last CDP study highlighted that transition to Industry 4.0 is still limited amongst companies in Italy: for this reason, the work of leading companies such as Ansaldo Energia acts a guide for the growth and innovation that awaits other production companies, which is essential to boost the country's competitiveness.