TALKING

Cybersecurity is becoming a very hot topic in OT and we are observing an increase in incidents – be it in healthcare , manufacturing or oil and gas . Different verticals are using OT today ; as we see , cybersecurity is not a joke . For example , we see lots of ransomware hit customers in OT cybersecurity and what we are trying to provide in TXOne is to secure our customers ’ s mission-critical OT environment . This is important because OT getting compromised is entirely different than IT , as we are talking about an economic crisis leading to total power shutdowns that can affect entire cities , including the health and safety of people . As the consequences can affect many critical areas of the operation of a company , this is something we take very seriously .

What are the most dangerous hidden blind spots in organisations today that can cause production downtime and affect operational continuity and safety ?

The most dangerous hidden blind spots in organisations today can be any hidden device , segment or a simple USB stick . Any device not being recognised that isn ’ t well known and detected on the network is considered a risk . Suppose we cannot visualise and detect our infrastructure , including what assets we are currently running and operating . In that case , any unauthorised thing being connected inside our network could hit our investment , manufacturing and production . From previous attacks that we have seen in the industry , hackers are using the legacy system we are still running today at our customer base .

It is critical to detect and prevent unauthorised USB sticks because we have seen many OT attacks that are being distorted within a USB port or transferring malicious data , files and viruses into those machines . They are then compromised by using something like a USB port or legacy Operating Systems that aren ’ t patched or supported by the vendor itself . We must make sure that we detect any suspicious behaviour inside our network and can prevent and protect the infrastructure . At TXOne , this is precisely what we can do with the technologies that we are further providing to our end users .

What are the shortcomings if using traditional endpoint security products in the critical infrastructure or OT environment ?

This is a complex issue and we must break it down into several layers to understand it . I always recommend that before you start doing a gap assessment or a risk assessment , you must categorise what the critical assets and devices are . Furthermore , analyse and categorise their functionality , how they are parting and the risk and vulnerabilities that can be compromised and exploited on each of those . Once we know all this information , only then must we start with the patching and the security .

Talking about the traditional antivirus , it must be connected to the internet , be updated and have the latest patches to detect viruses in real-time . However , in OT we find many challenges in this area , some of them stemming from old legacy platforms that are currently running . Surprisingly , many customers have been using XP and Windows 2000 servers till now . This is a fact that we cannot deny or change for the time being . However , since the world is going on a digital transformation journey , traditional antiviruses are becoming outdated and need to be constantly connected and patched .

Additionally , we are also working in a very harsh atmosphere . Some customers have their devices ,

Mohamed Ibrahim , Business Development Director for OT cybersecurity at Trend Micro MEA , Technical Partner of TXOne Networks

Cybersecurity is becoming a very hot topic in OT and we are observing an increase in incidents – be it in healthcare , manufacturing or oil and gas .

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO MIDDLE EAST 37