As industrial organisations digitise their environments, this is exposing critical operational technology (OT) to security vulnerabilities, while presenting new windows of opportunity for cybercriminals.
Since last year, there has been an 88% increase in OT vulnerabilities, which are used to attack critical infrastructure and expose vital systems to potentially devastating breaches.[i] With OT systems supporting energy, water, transportation, environmental control systems and other essential industrial equipment, attacks on these vital assets can inflict severe economic damage and even endanger public health and safety.
Cybersecurity of industrial networks is being prioritised in response to the threat, but one of the biggest challenges is that not all OT assets can be easily patched. Industrial control systems in OT environments often use legacy or out-dated equipment and software that no longer receives security updates. Scanning the systems can cause risks to operations and applying patches requires taking these systems offline for maintenance, which is not only expensive, but disruptive to critical operations.
So, what is the solution? How can industrial organisations secure OT and protect mission-critical systems against security risks, even when patches cannot be easily applied?
Industrial OT challenges
Traditionally, security was not as critical a consideration because an organisation’s OT network was designed to be isolated, running less-known industrial protocols and custom software. Those systems had limited exposure, whereas, today, OT environments have converged and are no longer air-gapped from IT networks, meaning that the lack of security measures poses a critical risk.
Unfortunately, this connectivity has not gone unnoticed by threat actors. ICS and OT specific malware such as Industroyer, securing patched
