As industrial organizations continue to embrace change by leveraging the latest technologies into their daily operations and production cycles, they have also been tasked with embracing remote and hybrid work environments – all while maintaining operational continuity. Utilizing advanced technologies has enabled these organizations to reduce expenses, expedite production time, and elevate customer service levels.
Industrial control systems (ICS) are specific kinds of assets and associated instrumentation that help to oversee industrial processes. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, there are three common types of ICS.
One of the biggest problems with the IT / OT convergence in critical infrastructure is that much of the legacy hardware cannot simply be patched to an acceptable compliance level. Recently, Sean Tufts, the practice director for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Internet of Things (IoT) security at Optiv, offered his perspectives on where the industry has been, where it is going, and some of the progress being made to secure critical infrastructure.
I am writing this from my home office in Texas. Texas isn’t just my home. It is the home of the best brisket on the planet, some of the most iconic high tech brands in the world, and energy production that powers the global economy. In the morning, I might meet with one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in the country about achieving the rigorous FedRAMP certification so they can sell to federal agencies.
If you enter the term “Purdue Model” into your favorite search engine, the resulting images will vary considerably. There’s almost no better way to stir up an Operational Technology (OT) security conversation than to begin debating what belongs on Level 1 or Level 3 of the model. You might even find some diagrams place operator Human-Machine Interfaces at Level 3. Notably, the original 1990 publication defines “operator’s console” as a Level 1 entity.
It seems that the most popular topics in cybersecurity for the last year has been zero trust as well as the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). These developments are good, as they signal some positive motion towards better overall security. Some of the current risks are worth noting, with a forward glance to protecting specific industries such as oil and gas production plants.
2021 was a challenging year for manufacturers, energy producers, and utilities. A chaotic pandemic year created an opportunity for threat actors to take advantage of disruption to infrastructure integrity and IT to OT operational dependencies, something they achieved with frightening rapidity and effectiveness.
The growing value of business data, the vulnerability of networked systems, and the importance of fuel infrastructure have made oil and gas companies major targets for malicious hackers. Already, the industry has been the victim of several high-profile attacks. The Colonial Pipeline hack compromised the business’s networks, shut down its operations, and deprived the East Coast of a pipeline that supplies nearly half the region’s fuel.
