Frenos, a vendor of AI Native Operational Technology (OT) security attitude management, announced its partnership with the N2K network on Tuesday.
The collaboration integrates N2K's comprehensive professional certified dataset into Frenos' Saira (simulated hostile inference agent) to create the industry's first OT security platform with industry-validated intelligence rather than a generic AI model. N2K's powerful cybersecurity certification knowledge base includes the knowledge and skills required to be the most valuable certification in over 100 industries. This living dataset has evolved with the industry for over 25 years and is continuously updated to reflect the latest standards and technology changes.
Trusted by its training platform, N2K's knowledge base helps users advance their knowledge curve while increasing their service provider's ability to be more adaptable and resilient.
“This partnership fundamentally changes what OT security can do,” said Harry Thomas, co-founder and CTO of Frenos. “We're not just building another AI that has found a vulnerability. We're creating something that thinks with the same professional rigor as certified security experts. N2K data bridges the gap between academic AI and the real-world expertise that critical infrastructure demands.”
Over the past decade, OT asset owners have successfully deployed first-generation security tools that establish a critical foundation for threat detection, response and visibility. Now, Frenos is implementing the industry's first second-generation OT platform, an innovative leap to leverage and amplify these existing investments. By intelligently combining first-generation tools with data streams with other diverse IT/OT cybersecurity datasets, Frenos offers unprecedented context and prioritization that forces organizations to dramatically advance and expand their OT security programs.
At the heart of this transformation is Frenos' AI agent Saira, powered by N2K's extensive certification knowledge base, providing insights with the depth and expertise of certified experts across more than 100 industry qualifications. This groundbreaking integration enables security teams to make decisions at their fingertips with the collective wisdom of the industry's most qualified professionals.
Peter Kilpe, CEO of N2K Networks, said: “The same specialized expertise currently used to prove human experts is being applied to train AI systems that protect the most critical infrastructure. Our partnership with Frenos represents a breakthrough in scaling expert expertise through AI.”
“The security of critical infrastructure is not about finding any possible vulnerabilities, but about realizing that a combination of techniques and weaknesses can actually disrupt operations,” Thomas added. “N2K's professional standards provide Saira with an operational context that assesses threats and vulnerabilities that can be addressed in future cycles, while providing Saira with an alternative mitigation strategy ranked when traditional patching is ineffective due to operational continuity.”
The partnership leverages N2K's extensive examination and certification knowledge base. It is used to train and authenticate over 1.5 million cybersecurity professionals. This high quality, structured knowledge transforms the way FRENOS validates AI capabilities and measures beyond superficial testing whether Saira truly understands complex professional concepts.
Looking forward to it, Frenos and N2K plan to expand their collaboration beyond exam data to include course materials, case studies and professional development content. This deeper integration further enhances Saira's ability to reason about complex OT security scenarios with the nuances and judgments of experienced professionals.
“Others optimize for general benchmarks, but they measure success with real certification standards,” Thomas said. “This partnership ensures that when Saira identify key attack routes, it is not only mathematically likely, but also validates against the same criteria that authenticate human experts.”
The partnership has made Frenos the first OT security company benchmark and train its AI model against specialized certification standards to ensure that enterprise customers receive not only conversational abilities but domain expertise.
