As your clients' industrial control systems (ICS) become connected to their IT networks, the traditional network boundaries (referred to as "air gaps") disappear. This exposes your clients to a greater risk of cyber threats that can cause disruptions to their critical operations. Fortinet's 2022 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report found that 93 percent of operational technology (OT) organizations experienced an ICS intrusion in the previous year, often through malware and phishing attacks. To safeguard your clients' ICS, it is crucial to provide specialized capabilities that are tailored to the unique environments of operational technology (OT).
To ensure comprehensive threat protection in OT environments, a combination of application control and threat intelligence is recommended. This approach allows operators to implement strong firewall policies and virtual patching while minimizing performance issues.
Application control provides detailed visibility and restricts access to risky functions within ICS systems. Because many OT systems lack authentication, they rely on implicit trust, but application control helps prevent credential compromise and unauthorized commands.
Intrusion prevention systems virtually patch known vulnerabilities in ICS systems. Patching critical systems like PLCs is often deferred due to downtime concerns, leaving devices vulnerable to attack. IPS signatures can block known exploits until patching can be completed, providing an additional layer of defense.
The FortiGuard Industrial Security Service specializes in providing application control signatures and IPS signatures for ICS protocols and devices. Fortinet collaborates with its OT ecosystem partners and utilizes threat research from FortiGuard Labs to develop protocols specifically for ICS. By combining FortiGate Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) and FortiGuard Industrial Security, you can offer your industrial clients:
- Application control to limit ICS functions and minimize risks
- Virtual patching to protect unpatched systems from exploitation
- Visibility into OT environment
- Segmentation between zones
- Hassle-free updates on threat intelligence
Our latest white paper, Advanced Threat Protection for Industrial Control Systems and Operational Technology, takes a deep dive into how you can best secure your clients' OT systems including key areas such as:
- OT Application Control
- OT Intrusion Prevention System
- ICS Threat Mitigation
Read the white paper to learn how you can protect industrial networks from modern ICS threats.