To maintain the same level of security across their IT and OT environments, organizations need an integrated cybersecurity platform.
Our cyber-physical world is becoming increasingly digitized, which forces organizations to adopt new operational processes to stay competitive. As a region with diverse economies and societies, Asia Pacific is facing significant challenges with protecting OT with ICS that power critical services, such as water, power, oil and gas, telecommunications, and transportation. Within the region, governments are pushing for initiatives to boost the resilience of critical infrastructure against increasing cyber threats in response to the growing complexity and risks.
Nevertheless, technology-driven innovation is arguably moving at a faster pace than ever before, making it difficult for security controls to be continuously enforced. When implementing OT cloud security, security teams must be able to address the following challenges:
The attack surface continues to broaden exponentially due to the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and operational technology networks, as well as increased cloud adoption.
On top of the widened attack surface, misconfigured cloud-based resources leave critical OT environments vulnerable. Malicious actors causing havoc by moving laterally within the OT infrastructure can take advantage of misconfigurations.
Legacy hardware and software that are decades old can introduce a range of vulnerabilities to the infrastructure when they are moved to the cloud. Cybercriminals have the opportunity to use historical methods to gain access and perform reconnaissance before employing more sophisticated techniques once they have reached their target.
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution era, pro-actively protecting ICS is crucial to successful risk mitigation. Data must be protected as it flows between OT and IT infrastructures amidst the digitization of operations. As new hybrid infrastructures are developed, cybersecurity should be woven into their initial plans along with centralized network security across the IT and OT environments with a network operations center (NOC), along with all application and platform security.
In addition, securing the business edge requires a multicloud, multi-cloud, and hybrid approach to cloud security. To achieve continuous earned trust, organizations can implement an adaptive cloud security strategy that consists of four pillars:
OT can move to the cloud-like any other infrastructure expansion, but the benefits can outweigh the risks. To mitigate these potential risks, organizations must simultaneously implement a robust security strategy. The goal is to improve processes, enhance analytical accuracy, and reduce errors using automation. An organization must understand the complexity of the infrastructure it supports and view these IT/OT interconnected layers as systems within systems to secure them. From the plant floor up through the cloud, there should be a security across the OT architecture. As firms embrace a digitally transformed IT/OT environment, visibility remains a primary problem to address.
By implementing a platform built around a common operating system and management framework, organizations can address the transformational challenges associated with moving to the cloud. As a result, the system is constantly assessing risks and automatically adjusting to provide comprehensive real-time protection.
In addition to providing seamless interoperability and complete visibility, an integrated cybersecurity platform also provides granular control for hybrid deployments.
Organizations can provide security by network operations center design with the broadest set of offerings to maintain the same level of security across IT and OT networks. To eliminate silos and provide better visibility, the centralized management system allows OT businesses to configure, manage, and monitor all components.
In addition, an integrated security architecture minimizes threat detection and response times as well as enables automated incident response to enhance threat remediation across the extended network.
It is a concept that is top of mind across OT and embodies the ICS infrastructure upon which they are built. Each of these security components works together to provide secure, long-term operations. OT leaders can achieve omnipresence for their new cloud businesses by identifying and adopting services that maintain sustained situational awareness.
It is the responsibility of a network engineer to ensure that end-users have access to the best possible network infrastructure, security, and performance.
Many engineers in network engineering can meet today’s needs. You can find network engineers using on-demand marketplaces such as FieldEngineer (FE) to expand your security services business. Start hiring freelancers today!
Good customer service is important because it makes people happy and keeps them coming back.…
Hey there, internet citizen! Have you ever felt just like the websites you go to…
Many of the strategies adopted have been really effective and have promoted strong movements in…
A huge bonus with technological advancement is being able to improve and monitor your health.…
Making our home more efficient is something we should all be aiming to do. Technology…
There’s no doubt that technology has developed exponentially over the last few decades, with this…