RioCan constantly incorporates cutting-edge smart technology into its buildings to deliver a great tenant and customer experience. Yet this increasingly integrated technology needs robust cyber security tools to protect it. That is why RioCan deployed Darktrace to protect the digital landscapes of its corporate office and hundreds of properties.

“Cyber security at RioCan is of the utmost importance and as the technologies at RioCan continue to evolve, we will continually adapt and improve our cyber security measures to ensure that we are well protected,” said George Ho, Vice President of Information Technology at RioCan.

RioCan has IoT devices deployed across its properties. While these foster a state-of-the-art resident experience, they also create security vulnerabilities. IoT devices expose the network to the internet, and so have the potential to be exploited by threat actors. Traditional cyber security tools may not register all active IoT devices, let alone recognize if one has been compromised. 

With over 200 buildings and an ever-increasing amount of IoT devices, RioCan uses Darktrace to protect against these vulnerabilities. Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI can see all devices in an organization’s digital landscape, including every IoT device, and learn their normal behaviors and connections. It then leverages this understanding to recognize abnormal activity that indicates a cyber-attack. 

If there is an attack, Darktrace RESPOND^TM disarms the threat in seconds by enforcing “normal”, neutralizing the malicious activity without disrupting regular business operations. 

As part of the Proactive Threat Notification service, suspicious incidents surfaced by Self-Learning AI are funneled to Darktrace’s SOC. There, cyber analysts assess and triage them as appropriate, and send intelligence and actionable advice to the company’s security team. 

“The combination of Darktrace RESPOND and Proactive Threat Notification is a great complement to any cyber security toolkit, and significantly reduces the time to triage and investigate cyber security events, especially within IoT networks,” said Ho.

Self-Learning AI continuously updates its understanding of the organization’s “pattern of life”, meaning it evolves along with the business, and doesn’t require constant updates and maintenance from the security team.

Darktrace saves RioCan’s security team further time by streamlining daily monitoring. Cyber AI Analyst constantly investigates suspicious activity and can track attacks even if they span multiple technologies.Through Darktrace’s Threat Visualizer interface, the security team can monitor alerts and investigations from across the business through a single screen. Darktrace uses Explainable AI with natural language processing to craft understandable reports for the human team.

“Darktrace saves our team time by consolidating all events into a single pane of glass,” said Ho. “Whether alerts are being generated in our corporate network or from our building networks, we manage all of the alerts centrally and with the same workflow.”