NOV Uses the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud to Defend Against Nation States and Adopt Zero Trust

Global equipment provider trusts intelligence to protect the energy industry

Attacks against energy companies don’t just threaten intellectual property; they stand to endanger critical infrastructure worldwide. That’s why NOV, the global provider that “powers the industry that powers the world,” relies on Recorded Future to secure its customers and brand.

“Intelligence is extremely important to the energy industry,” says John McLeod, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at NOV. “Everyone heard about the Colonial Pipeline incident, and we all know nation states are a big threat. Lots of attacks target our intellectualproperty and the information our customers share with us. We just don't know who plans to attack and when and where they're going to come in. That’s where intelligence comes in.”

Along with building equipment for oil, gas, and renewable energy providers in more than 50 countries, NOV works to keep the industry supply chain secure. Nearly a decade ago, the team brought in experts to identify gaps and create a roadmap for expanding its cyber defenses.

“One of the things they highlighted was intelligence, and having access to actual analysts,” says McLeod. “There weren’t many intelligence platforms back then, so we started out with a cyber threat analyst and graduated into a platform from there.”

When NOV encountered Recorded Future at the 2017 RSA Conference, the team decided to implement the platform to build out its intelligence program. “What stood out above all the other vendors was the roadmap I saw,” the CISO recalls. “They keep adding great features that align to our program."

Insight, Automation, and a Path to Zero Trust

“Threat intelligence helps prioritize my team's ‘go forward’ — our journey, if you will — to a Zero Trust North Star,” McLeod explains. “Visibility and analytics is one foundational component, orchestration and automation is another. It boils down to understanding the balance between intelligence and your security controls.”

His team at NOV takes a layered approach and keeps its technology stack integrated throughout the Zero Trust journey. The CISO credits Recorded Future with furnishing the “key pillar to automation” with an extensible and comprehensive API.

“We were able to partner with Recorded Future to get the intel feeds we need to conduct our automation efforts,” says McLeod. “Now we can automate intelligence into many day-to-day things we would otherwise need to do manually. They’ve also been very accommodating, working with us to build out custom feeds when we needed them.”

The NOV team also likes how the Intelligence Cloud combines insights about threats, vulnerabilities, security operations, and brand mentions. McLeod observes, “You need to know what’s important and how to prioritize. You could have a vulnerability, but is it really exploitable? Recorded Future gives us the confidence to know what’s high-risk versus what we shouldn’t be spending our time on.”

Intelligence Provides Board-Level Insight to Drive Strategy

With powerful intelligence at his fingertips, McLeod also relies on the network effect of the Intelligence Cloud to inform his company’s leaders about evolving threats. “My directors and I deliver a quarterly board presentation, and we use Recorded Future to make sure the pertinent information is all in the slide deck we provide,” the CISO explains. “If our peers are being attacked, we’re most likely being attacked, so it's extremely important that we educate our board members on threats against our company, as well as threats against the industry and our customers and peers.”

Comprehensive insights also help guide strategic investments in improving NOV’s layered cybersecurity defenses. Partnering with Recorded Future keeps leaders from missing threats that could result in reputational damage with those outside the industry, such as potential investors and customers.

"Exactly What Commercial Companies Need.”

While leveraging intelligence is the norm within many government agencies, McLeod observes that more of his peers in the commercial space should be building intelligence into their security programs. “There’s a lot of investment there but it's still been an uphill battle because some companies really don't understand threat intelligence,” the CISO says. “As a community, we need to come together and shine a spotlight on the importance of threat intel and how critical it is to security within the commercial space.”

McLeod credits Recorded Future with “stepping up the game” through consistent innovation. “In the intelligence space, Recorded Future is second to none,” he concludes. “They have the right platform and the right information for any company to dive right in and get the information needed to analyze threats and report up to senior leadership. Recorded Future delivers exactly what commercial companies need.”

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