Industrial cybersecurity
OT Cybersecurity
The impact of an attack on an industrial infrastructure can affect the availability and operation of industrial processes. It can cause unplanned downtime which, depending on its duration and the processes affected, could seriously jeopardize business continuity.
The challenges in industrial environments are complex. Firstly, because there is generally no exhaustive knowledge of the elements connected to plant networks, and we will hardly be able to protect something whose existence is unknown.
In addition, many of the industrial facilities have not been updated since they were put into production (considering that in those days cybersecurity was not usually a requirement in the design).
One of the most relevant aspects is that, in industry, there is no possibility of downtime or the intervention windows are very small (priority is given to availability and continuity of production). Another important risk factor is remote access (support and remote assistance) and interventions carried out on site by third parties, where there is usually little control and rigor from a cybersecurity perspective.
“We find ourselves in a scenario of increasing cyber threats; an environment with legacy network architectures; lack of knowledge “of what’s out there”; OT security managed from IT; lack of knowledge for the protection of ICS and, in many cases, scarcity of means and resources. The high level of risk is therefore a determining factor in OT”.
Hugo Llanos
Director of the Industrial Cybersecurity area, Secure&IT.
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