How to Manage Malicious Attacks on Operational Technology (OT)

Your business continuity depends on continuous, effective OT security to protect digitally-connected production floors and build resilient operations. Managing and reducing the risk of malicious attacks on operational technology (OT) is a critical challenge.

Those organizations that rely only on an intrusion detection system (IDS) leave gaps in their OT security. An IDS only warns about suspicious activity already taking place in your enterprise’s machinery, manufacturing robots, and sensors. It does not prevent attacks, such as the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in the US.

Given the reactive nature of an IDS, a breach and operational damage will have already occurred by the time you discover it. Yet risks to industrial and operational security continue to grow. Any attack can severely impact your company’s business continuity and production operations.

Like other organizations, you’re likely undertaking digital transformations to increase your efficiency and remain competitive. And as you’re aware, IT systems are no longer the only digital channel used. Comprising today’s industrial internet of things (IIoT), data from IT now connects with OT data and processes to provide proactive systems management. This requires better visibility into all assets.

Extended visibility often includes resources not accessible by your IDS; such blind spots include dormant assets, those left unmonitored by IDS sensors’ inaccessibility, serial assets not in the IP layer, and those not completely connected to the network that can be added from project files and other sources.

The most effective OT security solution can automatically compile a complete IT and OT asset inventory that doesn’t leave detrimental gaps in your security posture. OTORIO’s RAM² is such a security overlay. Its complete, cross-domain, industrial data source inventory even includes assets beyond the reach of IDS, or when the latter provides only partial data. And RAM² seamlessly integrates with your other digital security tools and industrial solutions. 

With prioritized alerts and greatly enhanced systems visibility, an overwhelming burden is removed from your overly taxed SOC and analyst teams. Their alert fatigue becomes an issue of the past with RAM² in place as a proactive approach to OT security and cyber-physical systems (CPS) risk management.

Alternatively, companies that haven’t yet implemented OT security into their existing stack can use OTORIO’s RAM² as a comprehensive OT–IT–IIoT solution to proactively manage digital risks and build resilient operations. Read our free white paper on how to Proactively Manage Digital Risks and Build Resilient Operations to learn more about securing your formerly air-gapped industrial environments that are now increasingly exposed to the internet—and the sophisticated bad actors waiting for an opportunity to strike.