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The OT cyberattack surface is much larger than IT and carries more significant consequences, including shutdowns and outages of vital services that could impact public safety. Fortunately, a proactive approach to security can mitigate these threats.
OT cybersecurity encompasses hardware and software to change, monitor, or control an enterprise’s devices, assets, and processes. Unlike IT, OT technology obsolescence periods can be decades long, resulting in old equipment and diverse endpoints that are difficult to patch.
The unique characteristics of industrial networks, with their proprietary protocols and human interaction, pose challenges and opportunities for securing operational technology from cyberattacks. While these networks may be less standardized than traditional IT systems, their interconnectedness and reliance on continuous communication make them highly vulnerable to cascading disruptions. Addressing these vulnerabilities through a multi-layered approach is essential to ensure the resilience of industrial operations and minimize the potential impact of cyberattacks. For example, an attacker could hijack the system, take control of vehicles, or sabotage telecommunications networks, causing customers to lose service or businesses to miss deadlines.
In the past, organisations separated their IT and OT networks with air gaps and demilitarized zones. While this separation provides some protection against attacks, it creates vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. For example, the same malware that infiltrates IT systems can also be used to penetrate OT. Additionally, the physical isolation of OT systems makes it difficult to update and protect them.
Organisations must eliminate the gap between IT and OT systems and install network segmentation and firewalls that can recognize OT-specific protocols to identify potential risks. OT teams must also collaborate with IT teams to ensure they know the risks and have visibility into all working hardware and software.
This allows them to monitor for abnormal activities, such as a device being configured in a way that increases its vulnerability to attack or an attempt to modify an industrial control parameter. With such visibility, they can address the issue before it causes significant damage or impact to production operations.
Network segmentation is separating distinct areas of your network based on their access needs. It creates internal barriers that help limit the damage caused by successful attacks no matter where they originate. It also improves security by providing an opportunity for centralised and simplified management of firewall policies alongside unified threat detection.
OT environments face unique challenges when implementing and maintaining a solid network segmentation strategy. Unlike IT environments, OT systems often have much more extended obsolescence periods — for example, a power station may have equipment in place that has been in service for 20-25 years. This can lead to a highly diverse endpoint environment with outdated or unsupported operating systems, hardware, and software that is an easy target for attack.
To effectively implement a robust network segmentation strategy, you must understand your organisation’s data sensitivity and user access requirements. For instance, departments may have varying data access needs based on their work processes and operational functions, such as safety controls or temperature monitoring.
Then, you can start implementing OT-specific network segmentation to protect your OT systems from cyber threats. Using VLANs or subnets to create logical network segments and linking them to networking hardware like switches and routers is one way to achieve this. You can then use a firewall that supports OT-specific protocols to inspect traffic for potentially malicious content and commands and enforce access controls across OT network segment boundaries.
Detecting cyber threats requires advanced detection solutions to identify anomalies and suspicious activities in the OT network. These solutions should map IP addresses, users, and systems to prioritize and analyze threats. This information can reduce the time an attacker has access to the system and decrease the costs of incident response and remediation.
In the past, OT networks were often isolated from IT systems and the internet, meaning that hackers had few opportunities to attack them. However, the convergence of IT, OT, and industrial IoT (IIoT) networks has opened up new vulnerabilities for hackers to target.
As a result, OT networks need to adopt new security methods to combat evolving threats designed to compromise OT systems and their data. In particular, removing the air gap by replacing it with network segmentation and a firewall that understands OT protocols are critical steps to protecting OT systems against cyber threats.
For example, public utility systems that have not been adequately protected can be targeted by hackers who seek to extort ransom or disrupt the nation’s power grid. In addition, oil and gas companies rely on OT to manage operations, including extraction, refining, and distribution processes. A breach in these systems could cause environmental disasters, production disruption, and endangering human lives.
OT security requires an approach that’s different from IT security. Whereas IT security concerns data protection and networks, OT security focuses on ensuring reliable physical systems, according to SANS Institute guidance.
As a result, many traditional IT security tools are ineffective against OT cyberattacks. For example, implementing device-by-device isolation via air gaps and industrial demilitarized zones (DMZs) doesn’t work anymore, given the interconnectedness of OT networks. Furthermore, relying on unencrypted VPNs or RDP to remotely access an OT network opens the door for attackers who can exploit weaknesses in these protocols.
With human safety at risk, OT cyber threats must be fought using a holistic approach that includes integrating security into OT environments and safeguarding critical infrastructure. This means implementing a zero-trust model where all connections are subject to authentication, authorisation, and monitoring. This requires a shift from IT-driven remote access tools such as VPNs and RDP to user-centric methods that require a combination of factors, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), passwords, biometrics, and other security checks.
Organisations must also implement segregation solutions to separate IT and OT networks because a successful attack on one of the two networks could spread to the other and cause significant damage. This includes preventing third-party vendors from using their laptops to connect to an OT network, which can allow malware to be introduced from removable media devices and spread throughout the infrastructure.
Welcome to Birds and Lilies! I'm Lou: mother, blogger and freelance writer. This is my lifestyle blog, where I talk about motherhood, infertility and IVF, beauty, my love for food and wine, as well as my thoughts about stuff, and our real-life and travel adventures.
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