Kuwait Oil Company has selected Cisco security solutions to better protect its installations from cyber-attacks, reported Trade Arabia. The company has already installed Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) from the Cisco TrustSec solution system, software that will help Kuwait Oil to implement security, access and compliance policies in an era where malware encounters are on the rise in the energy sectors.

Al-Bawaba quoted Senior Telecommunications Engineer at Kuwait Oil Co., Abdulsalam Al-Matrouk, as saying that cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly “sophisticated and discreet and are driven by financial or political gain.” This was why his company went to Cisco, worried about the growing number of devices and applications accessing Kuwait Oil Company’s network both inside and outside of the company’s firewall. But Kuwait Oil was confident that Cisco’s security solutions could counter the broadest set of vectors exploited by hackers. Cisco added that Kuwait Oil will also use the company’s Identity Services Engine, which can deal with access control and security compliance for wired, wireless and VPN connectivity.

Even refineries and power plants have been looking into cyber-security for some period of time, according to previous reports by EOG.