Intrusion Detection System

A purpose-built intrusion detection system for OT and ICS networks. It monitors your industrial traffic passively, understands the protocols your plant actually speaks, and flags the malicious activity that IT security tools miss entirely, without ever touching a production device.

The OT Intrusion Detection System is developed and owned by Shieldworkz. Arista Cyber deploys, tunes, and manages it for operators across the US and Canada as an authorized partner.

→ Request A Demo Through Arista → Show How It Works

Shieldworkz Builds the Detection Engine. Arista Runs It for You.

Arista Cyber partners with Shieldworkz to bring its OT Intrusion Detection System to operators in our markets. You get a world-class detection platform, deployed and managed by a local team that understands your industry and your regulators.

PLEASE NOTE

How this arrangement works

The Intrusion Detection System is a Shieldworkz product. The detection engine, sensors, threat intelligence, protocol decoders, and underlying technology are developed and owned by Shieldworkz. All product trademarks and intellectual property belong to Shieldworkz.

Arista Cyber is an authorized partner and vendor. We handle assessment, deployment, tuning, integration with your SOC, operator onboarding, and ongoing managed detection and response. For operators who want a single accountable partner for both the product and their wider OT security program, Arista is that point of contact.

IT Intrusion Detection Was Never Built for OT

A traditional IDS watches IT traffic for IT threats. Point it at an industrial network and it goes blind: it does not speak Modbus or DNP3, it cannot tell a legitimate engineering command from a malicious one, and its active scans risk upsetting the very controllers you are trying to protect. OT needs detection built for OT.

IT tools do not speak OT

Industrial protocols like Modbus, DNP3, and IEC 61850 are invisible to standard intrusion detection. An IT IDS sees traffic occurred but has no idea what command was issued or whether it was dangerous.

Active scanning is a risk in itself

Many IT security tools probe devices actively. On fragile OT equipment, that probing can trigger alarms, disrupt processes, or knock a controller offline. Detection must be strictly passive.

The threats are OT-specific

PLC logic manipulation, unauthorized engineering commands, and ransomware pre-positioning are attacks aimed at physical outcomes. They do not resemble IT threats, and IT detection logic does not catch them.

Four Ways It Catches What Others Miss

The Shieldworkz IDS does not rely on a single detection method. It combines four complementary techniques, so it catches both the known threats with a signature and the novel ones that have none.

Behavioral

Behavioral Baseline Learning

The engine learns what normal looks like for every asset and every process on your network, then flags deviations. Because the baseline is specific to your environment, legitimate operational activity does not generate false alarms.

Signature

ICS Threat Intelligence

Continuously updated signatures from the Shieldworkz Threat Research Lab track active OT adversary groups and their techniques, so known industrial threats are caught the moment they appear on your network.

Framework

MITRE ATT&CK for ICS

Detection logic is mapped to MITRE ATT&CK for ICS, the industry framework for industrial attack techniques. From ransomware pre-positioning to lateral movement, the IDS recognizes the tactics attackers actually use against OT.

Protocol

Deep Protocol Inspection

The engine decodes industrial protocols at the function-code level, so it can spot a malicious command embedded inside otherwise legitimate protocol traffic, the kind of attack that surface-level monitoring never sees.

Passive by Design. Continuous by Default.

The IDS installs without touching your production systems and runs around the clock. It connects via a network TAP or SPAN port, so it sees all the traffic while injecting none of its own.

Connect passively

Sensors attach via network TAPs or SPAN ports. No agents on OT devices, no configuration changes to production systems, and no traffic injected onto the network. Deployment carries no risk of process disruption.

Learn the baseline

Within hours the IDS maps every communicating asset and establishes normal behavior patterns for each one and every network zone, giving the detection engine a reference for what should and should not happen.

Detect continuously

All traffic is monitored 24/7 against behavioral baselines, ICS signatures, MITRE ATT&CK for ICS logic, and deep protocol analysis, identifying known threats, zero-day activity, and insider risk in real time.

Alert with context

Every alert arrives enriched with asset criticality, operational impact, and a mapped attack technique, and is pushed to your SIEM or SOC, so your team knows what it means and what to do not just that something happened.

Fluent in 200+ Industrial Protocols

Detection is only as good as the IDS's ability to understand the traffic. The engine natively decodes over 200 OT and IT protocols, including the proprietary vendor protocols that most tools cannot read.

Industrial Ethernet

Modbus TCP / RTU EtherNet/IP (CIP) Profinet / Profibus DNP3 BACnet

Power & Energy

IEC 61850 (MMS, GOOSE, SV) IEC 60870-5-101 / 104 C37.118 (Synchrophasor) ICCP (TASE.2)

Process & Historian

OPC-UA / DA / HDA HART-IP Foundation Fieldbus SRTP (GE)

Proprietary Vendor

Siemens S7 / S7+ Mitsubishi MELSEC Yokogawa Vnet/IP Schneider UMAS ABB SPA Bus

IT/OT Boundary

TCP/IP HTTP/S SMB RDP SSH

OT Intrusion Detection vs a Retrofitted IT IDS

The difference is architecture, not tuning. An IT IDS with a few OT signatures bolted on is not the same as a detection engine built for industrial networks from the ground up.

Capability	Shieldworkz OT IDS	Retrofitted IT IDS
Protocol understanding	200+ OT protocols decoded natively, to function-code level	IT protocols only; OT traffic largely opaque
Monitoring method	100% passive via TAP/SPAN; no traffic injected	Often uses active scanning that can disrupt OT devices
Detection logic	Behavioral + ICS signatures + MITRE ATT&CK for ICS	IT-centric signatures and rules
Alert context	Enriched with asset criticality and operational impact	Generic alerts with little OT context
OT-specific threats	Detects PLC logic manipulation, rogue devices, engineering-command abuse	Misses attacks aimed at physical outcomes
SOC integration	Native SIEM/SOAR connectors with OT context added	OT data, where present, lacks operational meaning

Detection Performance

Figures below are as published by Shieldworkz for the platform's detection capability. Arista can walk you through how each applies to your environment during a scoping call.

MEAN TIME TO DETECT

<15 min

High-fidelity, OT-contextualized alerts delivered in real time, so threats are surfaced fast enough to act on.

PROTOCOL COVERAGE

200+

Native decoding across industrial Ethernet, power, process, historian, and proprietary vendor protocols.

TIME TO FULL VISIBILITY

<48 hrs

Complete, protocol-aware asset inventory and behavioral baselines established within two days of sensor deployment.

FALSE-POSITIVE RATE

<2%

Environment-specific baselines mean legitimate operational activity does not drown your team in noise.

ALERT FATIGUE

-85%

Smart incident correlation groups related alerts into unified incidents with operational context and root-cause analysis.

DEPLOYMENT IMPACT

Zero

Fully passive monitoring via TAP/SPAN, no agents, no config changes, and no production traffic generated.

Detection That Supports Your Audit

Continuous OT monitoring is an expectation under every major industrial security framework. The IDS produces the detection evidence and audit trail those frameworks require, mapped out of the box.

IEC 62443

The international standard for industrial automation and control-system security. Continuous monitoring and detection support its system security requirements.

NERC CIP

North American electric reliability standards for the bulk electric system. The IDS supports the monitoring and detection expectations for US and Canadian utilities.

NIST CSF 2.0 & 800-82

The Cybersecurity Framework and the ICS security guide both center on the ability to detect. The IDS delivers the detect function for OT environments.

Your Local Partner for Deployment and Response

The detection engine is Shieldworkz. The deployment, tuning, and day-to-day response, in our regions, is Arista. Here is where we add value on top of the product itself.

Assessment & Scoping

We map your OT network, zones, and traffic first, so sensors go where they see the most and the deployment fits your Purdue-model architecture.

Passive Deployment

We install sensors via TAP or SPAN with zero production disruption, and get you to full asset visibility within 48 hours.

Tuning & Baselining

We tune the detection to your environment so alerts are meaningful from the start, minimizing false positives and alert fatigue.

SOC Integration

We connect the IDS to your SIEM and SOAR, translating OT alerts into content your IT security team can act on.

Managed Detection & Response

Prefer to hand it off? Our 24/7 managed OT security service monitors, triages, and responds on your behalf.

Single Point of Accountability

One partner for the product, the deployment, the support, and your whole OT security program, not a stack of vendors to coordinate.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. The Shieldworkz OT Intrusion Detection System is 100% passive. It connects via a network TAP or SPAN port and never sends active queries to OT devices, so there is no risk of process disruption, alarm triggering, or safety-system interference. Deployment requires no agents and no configuration changes to production systems

An IT IDS watches IT traffic for IT threats and cannot read industrial protocols or recognize OT-specific attacks like PLC logic manipulation. The Shieldworkz OT IDS decodes 200+ industrial protocols natively, learns behavioral baselines for your OT assets, and applies MITRE ATT&CK for ICS detection logic, catching threats an IT IDS misses entirely.

Yes. The platform supports fully air-gapped, on-premises deployment with no cloud connectivity required for core detection. Threat-intelligence updates can be applied offline, which makes it suitable for the most security-sensitive environments in defense, nuclear, and critical infrastructure.

Yes. The IDS provides native bi-directional integration with leading SIEM and SOAR platforms, pushing OT-contextualized alerts, asset data, and incident timelines to your security operations center in real time, so analysts get the industrial context they need without deep OT expertise.

The Intrusion Detection System is a Shieldworkz product; Shieldworkz owns the technology and all associated intellectual property. Arista Cyber is an authorized partner and vendor that deploys, tunes, integrates, and manages the IDS for operators across the US and Canada, and can provide 24/7 managed detection and response on top of it.

Most environments reach full asset visibility within 48 hours of sensor deployment. Complete rollout, including baseline learning, alert tuning, and SOC integration, typically takes two to four weeks depending on the complexity of your environment. Arista manages the entire process.