15 Sep 2022
What are the Core Capabilities of an Industrial OT security solution?
Industrial organizations that only use intrusion detection system (IDS) solutions leave gaps in their OT security. To address this issue, are you currently using/practicing all of the five essential security elements? And how do they help you close OT security gaps in your industrial manufacturing or critical infrastructure operations?
Industrial manufacturing and production introduce many potential risks, now even more so given the nature of IIoT. Air-gapping systems is not a viable defense. Ongoing, real-world breaches against industrial operations are proof of this, such as Toyota having to shut down several factories after a supplier was attacked.
So what should you be thinking about when you want to enhance your organization’s security posture?
The Capability to Eliminate Alert Fatigue
Having comprehensive asset visibility, prioritizing risks, and giving them context are essential. Here IDS alone falls way short. For starters, your security analysts and operational teams continually find themselves chasing thousands of false alarms; they’re a primary reason so why many suffer from alert fatigue. Meanwhile, critical events can be overlooked all too easily.
One petrochemical refinery found its SOC team being barraged by IDS-generated false positives—some stemming from ghost assets that didn’t even exist. The problem was solved by deploying OTORIO’s RAM²—after first creating an accurate asset inventory, it aggregated security events to only present its team with contextualized, high-priory alerts on its dashboard. Thus alert fatigue became a thing of the past.
Asset Visibility
Large industrial and manufacturing organizations are increasingly having to narrow their focus on establishing asset visibility into the business technology and OT systems. The heightened threat and risk level has also pushed [them] to adopt greater asset visibility to protect their ICS and OT environments from cybersecurity and ransomware attacks,” reports Industrial Cyber.
IDS relies on passive monitoring and active querying as it attempts to collect network asset information. Used alone, such solutions don’t offer a full 360° inventory of all of your OT and OT–IT–IIoT network resources. Teams are unable to manage risk effectively when they lack the complete picture.
Lack of business context and impact upon operations causes gaps to occur in your risk-based awareness when OT–IT–IIoT security and industrial data sources aren’t analyzed together. This is why CISOs, SOC analysts, and operational teams should look to bolster their IDS solutions.
OTORIOS’ OT security solution RAM² aggregates data from multiple systems to create a digital picture of your operational environment. Its breach and attack simulation capability lets your teams quickly assess your organization’s security posture to address vulnerabilities and exposures before they cause trouble.
Contextual Insights for OT and IT Teams
OT and IT teams are still not effectively aligned in industrial organizations. This means that operational and security teams depend on one another to collaborate efficiently, manage risk reduction, and perform timely, effective security incident responses.
True collaboration between teams empowers your staff to reduce and mitigate risks quickly and proactively. Security teams need insights regarding how various risks impact operations. And operational teams need to know how risks should be prioritized. Both should know why some OT security alerts are deemed high-priority and what actions are required to mitigate such risks. The ability of RAM² to provide context with its prioritized alerts makes all the difference.
What else do you need to consider when shoring up the overall security posture of your enterprise? Download our free eBook to learn why false negatives and four other major IDS pitfalls continue to leave your systems vulnerable to attack. You’ll also discover how OTORIO’s RAM² can close the gaps left in your OT–IT–IIoT security.
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