ProjectX: Bell Helicopter Lands a Winning Cybersecurity Solution

Bell, a Textron Company, is an industry-leading manufacturer of commercial and military helicopters, including the V-22 Osprey; AH-1 Cobra and SuperCobra; and the Huey.

IT/OT professionals must get acquainted with the physical systems they protect from virtual threats, says Craig Carpenelli and Steve Henson, IT/OT Architects with Bell in Fort Worth, Texas.

GrayMatter and Bell collaborated on a solution to protect Bell’s manufacturing plant devices from malware that exploits legacy operating systems prevalent on custom-built, industrial equipment.

Upgrading the operating system of a single machine — one that cuts aircraft skins, for example — would cost an estimated $500,000. Upgrading one machine wouldn’t protect its neighbors from malware. Bell has hundreds of devices spread over a half-dozen facilities in Texas.

“The $500,000 is just the direct cost. It doesn’t include the indirect cost of that machine being down for a matter of weeks,” Carpenelli said.

The Problem

Viruses repeatedly infected Bell’s manufacturing plant devices. Reinfections occurred almost as quickly as they were removed.

Many of Bell’s large, custom-built manufacturing devices rely on legacy operating systems that are expensive or dif cult to patch with software updates. IT/OT professionals at Bell wanted an effective, low-impact solution.

“We want IT to be collaborative and not be intrusive,” Carpenelli said. “We want to be able to basically hook it up and everything stays the same.”