Secomea remote access solution for industrial equipment
Secure Communications Made Easy
Secomea A/S is a privately owned Danish company and one of the market leaders on Office Network Security. Over the years, Secomea has built a strong line of Firewall/ VPN and Remote Device Management solutions with a unique emphasis on making the solutions easy to install, setup and use. That is why the company is named Secomea – which means: "Secure Communications Made Easy".
Secomea is driven by a spirit of innovation, which we define as the ability to be constantly inquisitive and curious - not only about discovering new technologies but, even more importantly, about finding effective new ways to adapt and refine existing technologies.
Watch this introductory video
The Secomea solution for secure remote programming access to industrial equipment such as PLCs and HMIs, explained in just 3 minutes.
Secomea – Your choice in a reliable, trustworthy long term partner
Imagine providing secure remote services to your customers as if you were on site. Save time, travel costs and provide instant services simultaneously.
All it requires is a high tech IT communication solution – We provide that!
Our professional insight into and experiences with the automation and machine industry have made us the technology leading provider of secure remote access solutions endorsed by major PLC manufactures world-wide.
We are your dedicated partner within first class remote access solutions. We meet our obligations and know and understand the challenges of your industry.
Our 3. generation technology enables our solutions to be:
Hence our company name – Secomea – which is an abbreviation of Secure Communication made Easy.
Why Secomea
As the number 1 choice in secure remote access, Secomea commits to offering the most complete, scalable and cost effective solution in the market, through a unique blend of ease of use, advanced features and state-of-art-security.
The Secomea Solution – Creatively combining and utilizing existing networking technologies.
The Secomea solution is amongst the leaders of its kind in the industry. It is deployed and used by major machine builders and system integrators all over the world.
The solution consists of a control unit at the factory (SiteManager™) and a Web or Windows based client (LinkManager™) for an engineer or end-user. These two components are tied together via a M2M communication server (GateManager™) that is available as both a cloud based service and a stand-alone server.
Roots in the Office Network Security
The Secomea solution for remote access to industrial equipment has roots in Secomea’s line of Office Network Solutions products based on the TrustGate firewall/VPN platform.
In 2003 the first Secomea products specifically designed for remote access to industrial equipment were launched based on a thorough assessment of the automation industry, for which the needs can be boiled down to:
- The solution must be easy to deploy, also for non-IT skilled persons
- The solution must be secure with regard to both technology and user-behavior
- The solution must resemble the principles of the Dial-up modem: Dial a number and you are online!
- The solution must comply with a wide range of customer IT and security policies
Is it VPN?
This is the question we are most frequently asked. Primarily because many people in the automation industry have bad experience with VPN.
Well, our first generation of solutions was in fact based on IPSec VPN, although we had improved the ease of configuration considerably with our EasyTunnel technology, which is still today used successfully around the world in both our industry and office network solutions.
But we soon realized that VPN is not ideal for the typical challenges that the automation industry is facing. VPN is brilliant for companies connecting two offices, or for connecting mobile users with the head office. For the automation people, however, there is typically no need, no desire, and no permission to access the entire remote network. You only need access to one or two devices, such as a PLC or HMI.
We needed to invent a solution that solved the following VPN challenges:
VPN is designed for providing full network access between two remote networks. We had to invent a solution that provides access to only specific IP addresses and specific services, without having to configure firewall rules.
VPN requires subnets to be different at both ends. We had to invent a solution that eliminated the issue with different subnets.
Instead of VPN, we created the concept of Secure Link Services, which provide dynamic, on-demand access to specific remote devices. You can read more about the advantages of our technology vs. traditional VPN and our technology vs. dial-up modems.
Is the solution accepted by the IT departments?
This is our second most frequently asked question.
Firstly, security is our number one priority. All connections are established based on x.509 certificate exchange, all data is AES encrypted, and user access is controlled by two factor authentication.
But in our view the most important factor to calculate into the overall security assessment of a communication solution is the probability of making human errors in form of faulty configurations or careless handling of login information. Even the highest security certification does not ensure security if the solution is not configured correctly. Insecure configuration can be prevented by making the configuration very strict and/or intuitive and removing possible confusion that can lead to opening holes.
To accommodate this, we implemented several measures, which you can read about in our “Information for IT experts“.
Who is Secomea and can I trust you?
This is the question that is often asked once the solution has been verified, proven to function and perform as promised.
We understand that in today’s globalized 24/7 world, making remote service a part of your product and service offering and liability will have huge importance to not only the bottom line, but to the critical competiveness of the business.
Secomea’s business philosophy is to practice good business conduct. We will not take financial risks, not promise beyond what we have capacity to accommodate and we will never compromise security and quality. This is reflected in our corporate mission and vision and in “Information for management“.
Security certified remote access solution
The Secomea solution was officially security certified according to international standards in 2014, as the first and only remote access solution worldwide. This was done in order to emphasize Secomea’s key statement: “Security is our number one priority”. Learn more about our security certification here.
About Secomea
We are a privately held company based in Denmark with sales offices in North America and China, and a worldwide network of distributors.
Over the years, we have built a strong line of Firewall/VPN and Industrial Communications Solutions with a unique emphasis on making the solutions easy to install, setup and use.
We are driven by a spirit of innovation, which we define as the ability to be constantly inquisitive and curious – not only about discovering new technologies but, even more importantly, about finding effective new ways to adapt and refine existing technologies.
We have dedicated ourselves to perfecting Internet based industrial communication solutions that help you monitor, manage, and service your equipment no matter where it is located – across town or around the world. Solutions that give you the ability to reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and boost revenues by meeting the demands for increased uptime.
That makes us your best choice in a competent long term partner for remote access solutions.