Delivering Cloud Security For Your Client’s OT And Industrial Networks

Chances are some of your customers are using OT and need your expertise to provide an adaptive cloud security solution to protect these environments.

 

  • June 29, 2022 | Author: Allison Bergamo
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In this increasingly digitized world, new technologies are designed to streamline processes across industries, including operational technology (OT) environments. OT uses hardware and software to monitor and control physical processes, devices and infrastructure. It can perform a variety of tasks ranging from monitoring critical infrastructure (CI) to controlling robots on a manufacturing floor. Chances are some of your customers are using OT and need your expertise to provide an adaptive cloud security solution to protect these environments.

3 Challenges for Securing IT/OT Networks
In the past, OT security was deemed unnecessary because OT systems were not connected to the internet. As a result, they weren’t exposed to outside threats. However, due to digital transformation, IT and OT networks have converged. This poses the following challenges for your clients:

1) Broad attack surface
Previously, OT systems had remained on-premises, located behind corporate networks. As IT and OT networks have converged, relatively insecure OT devices can introduce weaknesses in an organization’s cloud infrastructure.
2) Cloud misconfigurations
Misconfigured cloud resources can leave expose critical OT environments to cyber threats. Interconnected cyber and physical systems provide cybercriminals with easier access to data.
3) Legacy IT
While Industrial Control Systems (ICS) have been the heart of OT cyber-physical infrastructure for decades, connecting ICS is a relatively new challenge. Moving legacy hardware and software to the cloud can potentially introduce vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure, providing cybercriminals with an opportunity to infiltrate these environments.

Protecting IT/OT Networks Using an Adaptive Cloud Security Strategy
As your clients digitize their operations, they need to protect data as it moves between OT and IT infrastructures. Securing these environments requires an adaptive approach to cloud security that spans on-premise, multi-cloud and hybrid infrastructures.

You need to view your clients’ IT/OT environments as systems within systems. Visibility and control across the OT architecture must extend from your client’s manufacturing floor to the cloud. Leveraging Fortinet’s Security Fabric enables you to build security by design across your clients’ IT and OT network environments. The centralized management system enables OT businesses to configure, manage and monitor all components, to eliminate silos and provide greater visibility. The integrated security architecture minimizes threat detection and response times while also enabling users to coordinate automated incident response for enhanced threat remediation across the extended network.

 

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