In times of mayhem, resilience proves to be the solution
In today's interconnected world, organizations must be vigilant against real-world threats targeting Operational Technology (OT) environments. Regular testing of defenses, including quarterly "network unplug" exercises, is crucial to validate SCADA and PLC operations under simulated attacks.
The reality is that breaches in OT environments are becoming increasingly inevitable. Once an attacker gains access, they can exploit lateral movement to hop between systems, turning a single breach into a full-blown incident.
Visibility is the first step towards making OT security manageable. Using discovery tools, organizations can build a complete inventory of their OT environment, helping to identify critical systems like PLC shutdown functions and SCADA historian databases.
Traditional perimeter defense strategies, such as firewalls, antivirus, and access controls, are ineffective against modern attack strategies, especially in OT environments. A smarter strategy is to assume the perimeter will fail and build in controls that limit the damage. In critical environments, containment must be the foundation of a resilient defense.
Experts recommend OT network segmentation based on whitelist-driven security barriers between functional areas. This approach drastically reduces attack surfaces, controls and monitors communication without blocking it, limits damage spread, and helps comply with regulations like NIS2, ensuring operational continuity and faster incident detection.
Microsegmentation is one of the most critical capabilities in containing intrusions and preventing lateral movement in OT environments. By applying microsegmentation to high-priority assets, organizations can improve OT system security and reduce the risk of chaos and disruption.
Attackers are targeting infrastructure that underpins society, including energy, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors. Their objective is to cause maximum chaos and disruption. Securing OT systems demands a shift in mindset, from prevention to resilience, and embedding this approach starts with tracking what matters, such as mean time to containment, blast radius size, and operational impact.
OT environments, which were engineered decades ago for reliability and continuity, are increasingly connected to corporate networks and are vulnerable to attacks. Some attacks are state-backed, while others are opportunistic criminal gangs using ransomware-as-a-service.
Identifying assets on the OT network can be a challenge. AI-driven security graphs can learn normal communication patterns, enabling security teams to automatically isolate anomalous commands before they can escalate into full-blown attacks.
Securing OT systems also involves understanding systems connections and putting guardrails in place to prevent a breach from spiraling out of control. Containment in OT environments involves understanding systems connections and putting guardrails in place to prevent a breach from spiraling out of control.
OT systems often lack modern security measures like endpoint agents, patch management, encryption, and authentication. Strengthening these foundational elements is essential to improving OT security.
In conclusion, the priority is not perfection but resilience in OT environments. By adopting a resilient defense strategy, organizations can better protect their critical infrastructure and ensure operational continuity in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats.
