ATS Answers your Questions on OT and Industrial Cyber Security
ATS is pleased to share that our webinar in partnership with Cisco at our ATS Coffee Break Sessions Series was a huge success. The plan of the webinar included the essential need for operational technology cybersecurity.
ICS/OT cybersecurity is the central topic of CISCO’s new eBook, “OT Cyber Security.” Our ATS expert Mohammad Aboulniaj, Director of Operations and Head of OT Cybersecurity, answers all the questions about Operational Technology.
The need for OT Cybersecurity has grown significantly in recent times
The increase in the intrusions to get illegitimate access over the physical devices of organizations to steal data has increased significantly in recent times. Digitalization has allowed companies to communicate with their audience online and have a big chunk of data stored in the clouds or the physical devices to have it on the tips of the fingers. However, the cyber miscreants attempt to breach the cyber security wall and get access over the machines to steal data, blackmail the organization for ransom, or bring devastation to the communities and economies has grown. Also, data collection and analysis are becoming more and more essential to enable significant data initiatives.
It is critical to maintain control of all physical devices in the organization to ensure that they carry over safe operations at all times. OT cyber security tries to fulfil this objective and override any concern. If a device cannot be done safely, it will not run at all.
Operational technology cyber security includes the software, hardware, services deployed, and personnel to protect data and active technology infrastructure for a better reference.
How to improve OT security?
The OT environment is essential to a business’s operations, but these networks are also strategically important to attackers. Any compromise in this area could lead to far-reaching consequences, which makes it so crucial for you to have an honest assessment of the current security status of your ICS network. Ensure that your company has answers to the questions like who is responsible for monitoring and protecting ICS networks and if the proper security and operational teams are working together to develop an ICS cyber strategy to identify and prioritize your vulnerabilities.
As the first step, you must improve transparency and understanding of the risks to the OT environment in your organization and check the segmentation of your network. A solid network segmentation makes it difficult for the cyber miscreants to access the OT network, and transparency in the OT network would mean adequate protection against an OT specific threat. It could be overwhelming at the start while assessing industrial cyber risk and prioritizing your defences. You must create awareness of the dangers among every employee to take preventive measures to drive the necessary changes.
Q&A with ATS and Cisco on the latest OT cyber security eBook
We recently organized a webinar in partnership with Cisco to talk about operational technology cyber security needs and the latest trends and technology changes. The webinar was a conversation on Cisco’s approach towards OT cyber security.
Our expert Mohamad Aboulniaj (ATS), Director of Operations and Head of OT Cybersecurity, answered the questions related to OT cyber security and discussed how monitoring and detecting anomalies as soon as possible could prevent and avoid a cyber crisis. Talking about our OT specialist Mohamad Aboulniaj, he leads the technical vision of ATS. With over 15 years of ICT Infrastructure, cyber security, ICS system design, and project management experience, Mohamad’s unique ability to understand cyber security requirements in a control system environment enables ATS to stay on top of the industry.
ATS Expert Mohamad Aboulniaj Answers your Questions
Question 1: How should an IDS be typically fine-tuned or configured to monitor an SIS system effectively?
Answer: The IDS have a built-in database of hundreds of Signatures related to ICS/OT Protocols and functions; those signatures can be edited and customized to work with specific scenarios.
Question 2: How can general OPC communications be secured using a Firewall if not OPC tunneller?
Answer: The ICS/OT firewalls have deep packet inspection for the Industrial protocols, including OPC, so the required ports will be opened and closed automatically by the Firewall based on the OPC functions.
Question 3: Can you touch base on the recent Meteor wiper attacks in the Rail and Energy OT sectors?
Answer: Meteor is malware that wipes out the file system on the infected machine.
Question 4: As you know, the most important in OT functionality and availability is that it should be a passive solution?
Answer: Cisco Cyber Vision is a total passive solution, and it does not communicate or interact with any ICS/OT asset.
Question 5: What about the Cisco solution? Can it monitor the old RTU? As you know, it has different protocols and different connections?
Answer: Cisco Cyber Vision can detect a wide range of industrial protocols used by RTUs like Modbus, DNP3 and many more.
Question 6: What about if there are a lot of LAN inside the site? How will it take these LANs?
Answer: The Solution has one central Server (Cyber Vision) and many sensors connected to the main server. Depending on the size and locations of the ICS/OT Networks, many sensors can be deployed to monitor the traffic from different LANs.
How to find the latest industry trends and measures to be up-to-date about OT cyber security?
Follow ATS to see the latest news and information regarding OT cyber security and other major industry updates. Our first preference is to post updated information to keep our followers up to date with the latest information and changes in the OT cyber security domain.
Download the ATS Cisco eBook and watch out for the new ATS OT eBook to be released next week.
The eBook is a complete guide about OT cyber security to help the reader get deep insights into this niche. As we have seen, many executives and managers still lack information regarding OT cyber security, which prompted us to create high-quality eBooks to help them start in this area. The only way to protect yourself is to have the correct information and resources at your fingertips to know what to do when something unexpected happens or if you try to boost your security system.
And in case you lost our last webinar “Q&A with ATS and Cisco on the latest OT cyber security ebook” but still would like to watch it, subscribe to our channel: you’ll be able to enjoy our previous and future webinars alike!
