How Peloton helps Blue IoT strengthen cyber security and win new business
As one of Australia’s leading providers of smart building technology, Blue IoT is on a mission to continuously innovate in the delivery of ESG, smart buildings, cities and space—and, in doing so, pave the path for a more sustainable planet.
“Our vision is to make life better for people in buildings and places by saving energy, reducing carbon emissions and making spaces safer to live in by leveraging technology and the internet of things (IoT),”
– Bob Sharon, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Blue IoT.
The company, which pioneered the world’s first system to control buildings using cloud over radio, is on an exciting growth trajectory and knows the value in strengthening its cyber security maturity. To help deliver on both of these goals, Blue IoT has partnered with Peloton.
While Blue IoT can state with complete confidence that its smart buildings are secure, they know that their cloud infrastructure is just as vulnerable to cyber attack as other companies. Their lack of in-house cyber skills and expertise had the potential to expose them to greater risk of data breaches and cyber attacks, as well as potentially miss out on new opportunities.
As Bob Sharon, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Blue IoT, explained, “We were trying to win new business with a global hotel chain. To get this across the line, we needed to tick some serious IT and security boxes. And, when it came to cyber security, we knew we had a gap in our skillset.”
When Peloton first started working with Blue IoT, the initial focus was on meeting the requirements of the hotel chain. As Nathan Sgarlata, Head of Technology, explained, “We needed to do penetration testing to identify weak points and vulnerabilities, and monitoring to identify if there were any compromised systems. We also had to satisfy policy requirements around internal development, security, access procedures, the physical security of premises, and more.”
A team from Peloton performed a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing, which revealed a number of unexpected weaknesses and attack surfaces. This reinforced the need for supplementary skills and support in cyber security.
Since then, the Peloton team has been busy continuously improving the information security management of Blue IoT. They have moved to a 24/7 detection and response service, added M365 E5 Defender, and continue to provide vulnerability management and monitoring of security changes. This ongoing support provides a known state of risk that Blue IoT can validate against their specific compliance requirements.
In all, partnering with Peloton has created the opportunity for Blue IoT to look beyond their immediate needs and turn cyber security into a real asset. “In getting to know their business, we could see a great opportunity to help them reduce risk across the business—and to leverage cyber security as a valuable growth tool,” said Peloton’s CEO, Scott McKean.
Knowing what you don’t know is a powerful first step on the path to cyber security maturity. In bringing Peloton on board, Blue IoT was effectively acknowledging the unknowns and taking proactive steps to fill the gaps in their cyber security strategy and skillset.
Now, they are reaping the benefit of continuous scanning and cyber security support. “With real-time scanning, we can easily see vulnerabilities with context, and we can also easily understand how significant these risks are and where to focus our attention,” said Sgarlata.
“And when we go to prospective customers, we can show them our recent penetration tests to prove how well we’re managing cyber security. In terms of quantifiable outcomes it’s both risk reduction and savings from optimised licensing.”
Thanks to Peloton, Blue IoT now has a mature cyber security strategy in place, plus trusted support. “The level of expertise we have access to at Peloton is way more than what we could afford if we were to employ these skills in-house. The value they deliver is huge—we’ve struck gold,” said Sharon.
It goes without saying that Blue IoT was successful in winning the global hotel chain’s business, and the Peloton partnership puts them in a great position to continue on their growth trajectory. “Having cyber security factored into our solution offering puts us out in front of our competitors,” said Sharon. “We’ve partnered with the guys that know cyber security inside-out.”
