OT Cyber Security Technology Investment: Gifts That Keep on Giving
This holiday season, give a gift or make an investment that is beneficial to organizations tackling industrial cyber security.
Ron Brash | December 15, 2020
In modern history, holidays and special occasions involve the giving of a gift or investment. More often than not, many gifts are not useful, and the recipient regifts it or tosses unused gifts away after an undisclosed amount of time. In cyber security, it’s money spent, and once it is spent (especially if wrongly applied) – it’s usually gone.
In many Operational Technology (OT) environments, organizations make investments into cyber security products and are cautious to invest in new solutions without fully utilizing what they already possess. Unfortunately, “failed” investments cannot be regifted to recover the losses in time, effort, and budgets – so it is critical to choose wisely when securing your organization and start small in a cost-conscious manner.
In fact, a few aiding activities in that process might be as follows:
Determine what you already have invested in and deployed in your environment from an asset perspective
Evaluate the level of utility current investments provide or could be further utilized to ensure maximal benefit
Derive a risk-based approach that is holistic, but appropriate to your environment
Realize technology may not eliminate risk, but it may reduce efforts in other categories long-term if foundational capabilities are implemented
Prioritize efforts to raise the bar for security today, but also to enhance future technology
Commit to, and focus on the delivery of selected activities and technology for security enhancement
Recognize security is a maintenance activity, not a project with an end date
Before signing off or investing in industrial cyber security that largely does not benefit the organization, let’s make sure it’s a solid gift to the OT security capability portfolio and it addresses tangible pain points. Conversely, several gifts can be combined for savings and have impressive longevity assuming you don’t need the maximum bells and whistles. Similarly, many organizations may require many upgrades to get them to a sufficient level of security, but some “select gifts” may provide measurable ROI by easing administration and reducing disruptive events over their security journey instead of starting from scratch and overwhelming themselves with change paralysis.
For example, imagine you have a friend moving out on their own during the holidays, and they need average cooking equipment, so you:
Could get them niche equipment that is limited in application and would rarely be used
Get a very expensive set of items that does everything but requires a commercial gas stove
On a budget – purchase quality foundational elements used for most cooking and eating situations
Buy them a rock with googly eyes and let them starve
Instead of giving your friend the rock with the googly eyes, choose any of the other three options. Or with a very modest and well-meaning effort, get the person a few basic pots and pans, basic cooking preparation tools, a cutting board, and a small dining set. Obviously, it’s better than rarely used gadgets, so the budget option is likely the most intelligent.
This way, the friend can also choose to extend their cooking setup as they go or replace items as needed. It is certainly a pragmatic approach, but one that mimics what is needed in Industrial Control System and Operational Technology environments for the most part – the need for quality basics that enable other investments and human efficiency enhancements.
Needless to say, Verve helps industrial organizations achieve a variety of cyber security objectives or multiply other investments, but nonetheless, our mission is to keep the lights on, the water flowing, and society safe. Verve’s strategy is one that aims to assist the asset owner by helping them implement fundamental capabilities such as gifts that keep on giving.
7 gifts an asset owner can benefit from assuming a reasonable level of commitment:
If you have Windows systems, they can be managed and hardened through many native OS features such as Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy Objects (GPO).
Standardize and maintain hardened “golden” images for common asset types in your OT environment as a way to improve security going forward.
Deploy asset endpoint security strategies including native OS functionality, anti-malware, backup software, policy enforcement agents, and application whitelisting to add extra compensating controls to hosts.
Virtualize a number of Windows systems and applications as a step towards moving to the cloud (should that ever happen) while improving hardware dependencies, reducing chances of failure, and improving backups/testing. Cloud or not, you will wish you had done it before in many situations.
Examine and enforce proper user account hygiene, policy, and maintenance on hosts, devices, and applications, but especially on systems that are used for remote access/desktop or Virtual Private Network connections.
Use asset endpoint management strategies to enumerate all users, policies, applications, and logs for a host system, and help administrators ensure their environments can be quickly interacted with, but also accurately synchronized with expectations (e.g., we have 0 end of life systems, but in reality, we have X). This is also critical for transient assets to be managed correctly when they operate in untrusted environments.
Modernize your network infrastructure for future increased usage of remote access (think Secure Remote Access), VLANs, micro segmentation, and other separation measures used to secure your organization’s sites, zones, and conduits. Many of these features and assets can be monitored and controlled with endpoint management interactions further helping them achieve their fullest security contribution over its operational lifetime.
These are seven areas among the many you could explore, and some will require more lift than others. However, many of these can be executed in order, some can be combined combinatorically, and some can be complete initiatives on their own. The point is, there are things that can be done on a low budget that keep giving back to the organization’s true needs, and if done for the right “price” and the organization minimizes disruptive events (or goes without) – then they did their job.
After all, aren’t we trying to give our organizations and customers gifts that keep giving back positively over a reasonable period of time to achieve a reasonable level of gains for the investment? I thought so, and it’s an honest conversation we are willing to have to help the customer secure their environment.
Give a gift that keeps on giving
Connect with one of our ICS cyber security experts to learn how you can give your industrial organization a boost that will continue to make a difference for years to come.
Recently, there has been a significant emphasis on the pursuit of asset inventory as a starting point for many OT cybersecurity programs. While asset inventory is the first and most important step in your cybersecurity journey, many organizations fail to recognize it is only one component of security maturity and end up falling short of their end goal. Hear from aeSolutions’ VP Industrial Cybersecurity, John Cusimano and Verve’s VP Solutions, Rick Kaun, as they discuss building an OT cybersecurity roadmap.
How to Improve Your Operational Technology Systems Management Process
OT systems require the same ITSM functions that enable security and reliability but with unique characteristics of OT systems and their managed processes.
Subscribe now to receive the latest OT cyber security expertise, trends and best practices to protect your industrial systems.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.