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Four Key Trends in Operational Technology

In the highly dynamic world of today’s digital world, even operational technology (OT) structures are not out of the danger zone of cybercrimes. The Spictera 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cyber security provider Report found that OT organizations are grappling with growing waves of attacks, as observed by a spike of 73% in Cyberattacks. Still, there is some good news, which is that this is not the first time such a trend is pointing upwards. As for intrusions, the specifics are quite different. There is growing evidence that even though OT professionals continue to report more intrusions and face harsher outcomes, protection scores experience progress for many companies.

1. The Shift in OT Mindset

The Spictera 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report is the sixth survey of its kind. In the years since the creation of OT systems, some major trends and changes have occurred, one of the most important of which has been a change in attitudes to OT security. A few years ago, OT security was almost irrelevant to many companies.

In the modern world OT networks and critical infrastructure protection threats are known and valued. The instant this need is recognized by a company, OT security is a high priority, and the personnel and resources are directed accordingly. In the course of serving the companies, more and more tasks are being assigned to the CISOs and one of the tasks that have been increasingly given over the years is that of taking care of the OT security.

2. New Threats to the OT Sector

The second threat discussed in the Spictera report is the rise of specific attacks on the OT industry. The survey spans service-oriented and industrial verticals, but manufacturing is becoming the industry of focus more and more lately. Consequently, there have been high cases of brand erosion, loss of business data, and theft of ideas.

Substance abuse and ransoms now include the interruption of production processes, as has been keenly captured through OT threat intelligence and surveys. The diminishing emphasis on the ‘essential’ OT characteristics signifies increasing risks to the sector.

3. In other words, it was the expansion of threats that were OT-specific.

The 2024 report points to two types of cyberattacks that have recently become much more common in OT settings. The first is basic ransomware attacks, dangerous by causing disruptions of key facilities and producing processes. These attacks are on the rise and heavily affect OT systems, as has been presented.

The second attack is targeted and is referred to as OT-specific malware. Unlike classic ransomware, OT-specific malware is developed specifically to take over and or sabotage the operational processes in OT environments, such as valves, switches, or conveys. While these are comparatively rare, they are delivered by nation-state attackers with sufficient resources to develop carefully targeted exploits. This type of malware can go ahead and attack certain OT network devices, endanger operations, and take control of some of the most significant systems.

4. Issues of OT Security in Modernization

As it has been in the previous sections described, the general advancement of OT security is still met with numerous problems that organizations experience in terms of modernization. For example, the terrain of the factory for production can contain various computerized instalments which may be new or old, but most were not designed to be secure. it was not ten or even twenty years ago that security was considered to be important, which means that many Operational Technology devices and the protocols they use to communicate are not built to deal with modern cyber threats.

The first component of this process is to simply get a handle on what you’ve got, to make the old systems more secure. All this is a clear indication that organizations must assess all the systems that require protection. Once visibility is achieved the next thing to do is to adopt next-generation firewalls and switches to isolate OT networks. The idea of a higher level of information security maturity is that elements of the zero-trust network security model can be incorporated into an organization.

Security maturity is also on a continuum hence the identification that most of the organizations are in their nascent phases. Some of the changes include; visibility has improved there is a breakdown of segmentation in the network and SecOps is becoming more popular. However, as it is seen from the report, the status may vary from the basic level of modernization to the sophisticated SecOps.

5. Practical Steps to Secure OT Now

There are several practical measures organizations can take to lock down their OT environments now: Among them, one of the most effective is to set up the proper visibility of OT networks and their further segmentation by using other firewalls and switches. This network segmentation can simplify the task of protecting OT devices and production lines because it will not allow the free flow of activity in the OT network by cyber criminals.

Forecasting is also an important component of the work. When organizations are developing strategies to get to the point of having an OT SecOps, they should think about having an IT/OT SOC. For creating this type of center it is necessary to apply OT-specific SecOps tools that can recognize and control the specific devices and communications in the OT. Due to the scarcity of skilled cyber employees, organizations should also look for ways to consolidate OT security vendors further while also maintaining a healthy consideration of operation concerns.

Last but not least, organizations must assess the threat intelligence for their OT networks. While it is essential to have OT security solutions the need for artificial intelligence and near real-time threat intelligence to meet the evolving security threats is also necessary. This is particularly true at a time when organizations are endeavoring to consolidate and enhance their security solutions and thus, such a platform solution is invaluable.

Conclusion

Cyber security management for managing OT such as the Spictera OT Security platform could help with vendor consolidation an issue that concerns many CISOs. The Spictera OT Security platform can be described as wide-ranging, holistic, and encompassing, and is a component of the Spictera Security Fabric. It includes networking security, zero trust, network operation security, and security operation solutions in addition to OT-specific solutions and services to enable performance. When integrated with the latest OT threat intelligence, Spictera’s OT Security platform can detect new threats and safeguard the OT ecosystem in the growingly perilous digital world.

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