In today’s rapidly evolving industrial landscape, organizations face critical challenges securing their Operational Technology (OT) environments. As industrial and manufacturing sectors continue to modernize their operations, the convergence of IT and OT systems has created new vulnerabilities that cybercriminals are eager to exploit. The complexities of the OT cybersecurity journey demand careful navigation and strategic planning to build a robust security posture for the industrial world.
The Current State of OT Cybersecurity
The cybersecurity landscape in industrial settings presents a complex challenge. Despite increased spending on cybersecurity solutions, many organizations still lack OT cybersecurity maturity. Many organizations have implemented cybersecurity measures such as network protections, but they often lack robust protection mechanisms for their production floors. This often leaves critical assets, such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) that control operations on production floors, unprotected. This gap is particularly concerning as it leaves critical infrastructure vulnerable to potentially devastating attacks.
The implications of this vulnerability are far-reaching. Attacks on these systems have the potential for severe financial repercussions, disrupting operations and causing significant economic damage. More alarmingly, compromised OT systems could impact employee and public safety, as well as essential services, potentially leading to life-threatening situations.
The IT-OT Convergence Challenge
One of the most significant challenges in OT cybersecurity is the convergence of IT and OT systems. Traditionally, these two domains were operated separately, with OT systems often being air-gapped and isolated from external networks. However, the drive for increased efficiency, remote monitoring, and data-driven decision-making has led to the integration of these systems, creating new attack surfaces for cybercriminals to exploit.
IT is far more advanced and mature than OT in terms of cybersecurity. The challenge arises at the IT/OT convergence point, where traditional IT cybersecurity strategies are not suited for the unique requirements of OT environments. This highlights the fundamental challenge organizations face when trying to secure their OT environments by adopting IT security practices:
- Legacy devices: Many OT environments rely on legacy devices that were never designed with cybersecurity in mind. These devices often lack basic security features and can’t be easily updated or patched. Moreover, replacing legacy devices is a costly endeavor, as OT devices are expensive and upgrading to newer models typically requires shutting down operations, further increasing the overall cost.
- Operational Priorities: In OT environments, availability and reliability often take precedence over security. Any security measure that could potentially disrupt operations is likely to face resistance.
- Diverse Technology Landscape: Industrial environments often feature a mix of technologies from various vendors and different generations, making it challenging to implement a security measure that can cover all.
- Increased Attack Surface: IT/OT connectivity expands the attack surface, exposing OT environments to threats originating from IT networks, such as ransomware and malware attacks.
- Lack of Visibility: Many organizations struggle to maintain a comprehensive inventory of their OT assets and are often unaware of what assets are deployed in their OT environment. This lack of visibility makes it difficult to assess vulnerabilities and implement appropriate protections.
Building a Robust OT Cybersecurity Posture
Navigating the OT cybersecurity journey requires a strategic approach that addresses the unique challenges of industrial environments. Here are key steps organizations should consider:
- Asset Discovery and Inventory
The first step in securing an OT environment is knowing what needs to be protected. Organizations should implement tools and processes to discover their inventory of all OT assets, including legacy systems. This inventory should be continuously updated to reflect changes in the environment.
- Risk Assessment
With a comprehensive asset inventory, organizations can conduct thorough risk assessments. This process should identify critical assets, potential vulnerabilities, and the potential impact of a successful attack on each asset.
- Implement a Layered Security Approach
Protecting OT environments requires a multi-layered security strategy that addresses vulnerabilities at various levels of the industrial network architecture. While network segmentation is crucial for protecting Level 3 (operations systems) and Level 4 (IT network / logistics systems), it’s not sufficient on its own. Organizations must extend protection to lower levels, implementing secure remote access solutions with granular controls and multi-factor authentication. Critically, this layered approach should include Level 1 protection for devices like PLCs, which are often the last line of defense against cyber threats. By securing these foundational components, organizations can prevent unauthorized changes and maintain the integrity of their most critical operational assets, even if other security measures are compromised.
- Comprehensive Visibility and Asset Management
Implementing solutions that provide comprehensive visibility into actions taken on critical assets is crucial for OT security. These solutions should offer real-time monitoring of all activities and live management of sessions. This includes tracking who is accessing OT devices, logging actions taken, and the ability to terminate unauthorized sessions. Such visibility allows organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats, reducing the risk of both malicious attacks and unintended operational disruptions. t
- Incident Response Planning
Developing and regularly testing an incident response plan is critical. This plan should be tailored to the unique challenges of OT environments and should involve both IT and OT teams. A crucial component of incident response is maintaining a proper backup and recovery strategy that enables rapid rollback to known-secure system states. This allows organizations to quickly restore critical OT systems to their last verified configuration in case of a security incident, minimizing operational downtime and reducing potential damage to industrial processes.
- Human Factors and Operational Risk
Human error remains one of the biggest cybersecurity risks in OT environments. This includes unintentional misconfigurations, accidental system changes, or improper handling of critical operational equipment. These inadvertent actions can lead to significant disruptions in industrial processes or create security vulnerabilities. Hence it is important to implement solutions that allow for a robust credential repository, and proper password management.
- Governance and Policy Development
Establishing clear governance structures and developing comprehensive policies and procedures for OT security is essential. These should align with industry standards and best practices while addressing the specific needs of the organization.
The Road Ahead
The journey to OT cybersecurity maturity is ongoing and complex. CISOs often struggle with this journey, noting “This is not an easy path… it can take two plus years to get to the point where IT and OT departments work together effectively.”
Organizations must recognize that achieving OT cybersecurity is not a one-time project but a continuous process of improvement and adaptation. It requires commitment from the organization’s leadership, collaboration between IT and OT teams, and a willingness to invest in both technology and people.
As the IT and OT convergence grows in industrial and manufacturing environments, the importance of OT cybersecurity will only increase. Those who successfully navigate this journey will not only protect their operations from cyber threats but also position themselves to fully leverage the benefits of digital transformation in the industrial world.
About the Authors
Doug Barnes, OT Cyber Security Consultant
Doug Barnes has over 30 years of IT/OT technical experience in a variety of industries. The last 11 years were spent at both GE & Whirlpool, where he had a variety of OT Technology design and OT Cybersecurity roles within both companies. While at GE Aviation he designed the architecture of the Network & Data security models for the GE Proficy MES system, which was rolled out to 10+ sites. At GE Power he defined the OT network design and segmentation, DMZ OT design, and implemented OT threat monitoring (World Tech – GE Product). While at Whirlpool, he designed the global DMZ & OT network segmentation template, created the global OT governance policies which utilize both NIST SP 800 R83 & IEC 62443 (parts 2 & 3), in conjunction with designing and rolling out the initial OT cybersecurity template utilizing Claroty, Rockwell FactoryTalk Asset Center, and Octoplant.
Doug can be reached online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-barnes-138b46
Jay Smylik VP Global Sales at NanoLock Security
Jay Smilyk has over two decades of experience in sales leadership and technology sales. Jay has held executive positions and sales management roles and has served as CRO of Tripleblind and Sepio Systems. Before that, he was the Eastern Regional Director of Sales for Vectra Networks. Jay also previously served as VP of Sales at Safend, where he built a team of security professionals to bring endpoint data protection solutions to the US market.
Jay can be reached online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsmilyk/ or via email at [email protected]
