OT and IoT Security Review
Review and analyse Operational Technology networks and systems security whilst protecting IoT devices which potentially provide unsecured “back door” routes into your organisation and collect, transmit, and analyse data
The convergence of OT and IT networks has led to many benefits for customers in terms of efficiency awareness and cost control. However this has also introduced risks with the differing priorities of OT networks (availability, safety, reliability) operating in some cases at odds with the cyber security goals of the organisation. The implementation of IoT is also crucial in making organisations more effective and efficient, providing broad connectivity and integrations ranging from supporting employee collaborations to building management systems.
However, securing this requires the correlation of large volumes of typically unstructured data, combined with the broad use of third party access and inability to patch and update these systems means there are serious security considerations.
At Cyberfort we have developed cyber security review services which enable organisations with OT and IoT strategies to achieve availability, resilience and safety goals. Enabling systems, networks and data to be secure and compliant with industry regulations.
Key Challenges
As industrial organisations converge OT into their IT environments, they are experiencing security challenges.
The security risks with OT and IT technology integration include unknown devices and legacy networks, remote or physically challenging sensor environments, weak authentication and authorisation, lack of encryption, vulnerabilities in firmware and software, and difficulty patching and updating devices.
Most crucially, the prioritisation of availability, reliability and operational safety mean that these networks have often been designed without security in mind, and as such retrofitting is a specialist task that requires both OT and cyber security expertise.
How Cyberfort can help
To help combat security problems Cyberfort have developed a range of OT and IoT security assurance services. The review services include OT network discovery, network access assessments, patching and update statuses, secure config reviews, providing guidance on how to securely authenticate users without repudiation, and identifying different types of data being transmitted across your organisations network.
We further augment this with our OT/IT converged SOC model, providing the correlated link between OT and IT networks and devices, enabling appropriate responses to defend each network against external and internal threats (and each other).
How Cyberfort helps
Complexity of IoT and OT convergence
We look at the whole OT and IoT system picture to understand the cyber security requirements from an engineering, automation, operational and IT perspective. Based on the insights from the review we provide recommendations on how to identify and protect against threats from a changing cyber security landscape model.
Disparate network infrastructures not designed for OT and IoT integration
Often OT equipment uses proprietary communication protocols which are not aligned with modern security standards. At Cyberfort we can help organisations to review existing OT network architectures, analyse the potential security risks of converging OT and IT networks and devices. We use appropriate standards (such as NIST CSF, 62443, MITRE ICS) to provide guidance on the potential attacks, deliver security monitoring and provide remediation strategies should a security breach happen.
Legacy infrastructure causing operational security issues
Many OT systems have long life cycles and were not built to be externally connected. Cyberfort can review legacy OT systems and provide guidance on how to best support from a Cyber Security perspective whilst retaining the OT priorities. We can identify what secondary security controls should be implemented, which devices present a lower risk and what systems and infrastructure need to have constant visibility to prioritise defences in an available, resilient, secure and compliant manner.
Resources and skills available to undertake patching and software upgrades
As part of the OT/IoT security review we take a deep look at all systems, processes, software and network architectures to identify where vulnerabilities may potentially be exploited. Then we work with you to put in place the right security controls and roadmap for improvement based on a cost vs business risk analysis.
Our Expertise
OT/IoT Cyber Security Maturity assessment
Review your OT environments and manufacturing cyber risks against industry best practice guidelines
Cyber security governance programmes for OT and IoT
Create cyber security governance programmes which assess legal, technology and compliance risks. Capture key actions and develop roadmaps to improve security
Security roadmaps based on risk profiles
Create a strategy and roadmap that can be shared with executive leadership and address risks that are appropriate to your organisation’s risk tolerance and capabilities
Secure network design, visibility and monitoring
Design secure networks with the right visibility, monitoring and control for OT and IT integrations
