Internet-connected industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) are common targets for attackers seeking to steal data or disrupt operations. These systems monitor critical infrastructure and complex industrial processes that operate power grids, transportation, manufacturing and other services.
OT Security Challenges
There are certain key challenges that the industrial sector faces when it comes to securing industrial or OT infrastructure:
- Staffing challenges due to shortage of talent with ICS cybersecurity expertise
- Lack of overall security visibility and asset inventory/discovery
- Inability to detect risks or threats across connected systems
- Increasing connectivity of ICS to enterprise networks and the internet across operational technology (OT), exposing them to risk
- Requirements to keep all key systems running, despite legacy use of insecure protocols or end-of-life equipment (no longer supported by vendors)
Best Practices for Securing OT Infrastructure
Industrial organizations need to minimize their overall attack surface to reduce the risk of severe operational and financial damage. They can significantly reduce risks by:
- Centralizing their view into the activity across complex, interconnected and distributed systems using a SIEM (security information and event management) system
- Automating the collection, parsing, analysis and correlation of log data from key systems to monitor for anomalies and early indicators of an attack
- Detect the use of insecure protocols or common misconfigurations that can broaden their attack surface
- Keeping event logs and historical data, with search and reporting capabilities to help with deeper investigation, detection and response
- Responding to events quickly using gathered evidence and guided security playbooks for next steps in order to contain or block threats
- Pair SIEM (security incident and event management) with automated detection and response in one solution to reduce integration complexity, address solution sprawl and save time spent switching between tools
Common Security Issues Seen in Industrial Attacks
- Password spraying – This is a type of brute-force attack Blumira detects that is used by attackers to gain initial access into a local system.
- RDP connections – Remote Desktop Protocol is often misconfigured to allow public IP access from the internet, which can result in ransomware. Blumira notifies you of any external attempts to connect via RDP to your network to protect against attacker exploitation.
- Lateral movement – Attackers will target local government network devices for unauthorized access to enable them to move laterally through your environment. Blumira’s honeypots give you an easy, one-click way to detect and respond to these attempts.
How Industrial Organizations Can Detect Cyberattacks With Blumira
Blumira offers an all-in-one solution that industrial companies of all sizes and security experience levels can leverage. Blumira’s platform enables you to detect and respond to threats to prevent a ransomware attack and data breach:
Detection
Monitor and detect real threats:
- Deploy in minutes and hours, not weeks or months – Blumira is 5x faster to fully implement than other security solutions, increasing your time to security*
- Get meaningful, high-value alerts on real threats to reduce false positives and alert fatigue for your small teams so they know what to prioritize
- Gain comprehensive visibility with third-party integrations across cloud, on-premises and cross-platform; and track trends with security reports
Response
Enable your team to quickly respond:
- Respond automatically through Blumira’s platform by blocking known threats
- Know what to respond to with Blumira’s prioritized alerts that tell you what’s critical and urgent
- Know how to respond quickly with the step-by-step playbooks that populate with every alert
Expertise
Gain access to security expertise:
- Get responsive security advice from Blumira’s experienced security team
- Dedicated assistance with onboarding, deployment, integrations and rule management
- Advanced support for incident response to help with triage and provide logs for investigation and remediation
*Based on a comparison of 12 different SIEM providers on G2
How Blumira Makes Cybersecurity Easy for Industrial Operations
Get more detail on the value we provide cybersecurity value for Industrial control systems :
- Ease of Deployment & Use – Set up Blumira’s cloud-delivered detection and response platform in minutes or hours, using your existing smaller teams; no need for security expertise to manage or respond to alerts.
- Lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) – On average, Blumira is 25-40% more affordable than other SIEM providers, making it easy to justify budget and ROI (return on investment) to your executive board
- Automated Security Operations – Blumira’s platform automates the manual process of threat hunting and analysis. Using pre-built rules, Blumira sends high-value alerts on detected threats so small teams knows what to prioritize and how to respond
- Comprehensive Coverage – Out-of-the-box, vendor-agnostic integrations with third parties across on-premises and cloud applications provide advanced security visibility and wide coverage across complex, hybrid environments often seen in state and local government
- Trusted Security Advisors – At no added cost, you get access to responsive, helpful security advice from Blumira’s in-house security operations team to assist with onboarding, management, new integrations or incident response triage and investigation as needed – acting as an extension of your existing IT team.
Free Blumira Account for Industrial (ICS/OT) Cybersecurity
Blumira’s platform combines a cloud SIEM with automated threat detection & response capabilities to provide one easy-to-deploy solution that helps security or IT teams do more with less.
Sign up for a free Blumira account to detect and respond to threats in Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, SentinelOne, and more. For more coverage and support, easily upgrade to one of our paid versions.
