Good news: If you’re thinking about finding an OT cybersecurity vendor, you’re already well ahead of many discrete manufacturing companies.
Nowadays, most companies know that they need to secure their OT systems. They can’t really get away from the idea, considering that high-impact attacks on critical manufacturing infrastructure rose 140% in 2022.
But knowing that a problem exists and knowing how to fix it are two different things.
If you’re just getting your head around the differences between OT and IT security, how are you supposed to know which OT vendor is right for you? There are a wide range of vendors on the market, all promising different benefits and showing off different features.
You’ve probably run a cost-benefit analysis to prove to your business that you need an OT cybersecurity partner. How can you make sure the vendor you choose delivers on those figures?
With so much to think about, you might feel like your quest for OT security has ground to a halt before it has even begun.
But finding the right OT vendor doesn’t need to be quite so complicated. You just need to know what to look for.
In this blog, we’ll break down the most important elements to consider when choosing an OT cybersecurity vendor.
When you’re measuring up a potential partner, make sure you ask them these three crucial questions.
Does The OT Vendor Cover Every Step of Your OT Security?
You can divide OT security roughly into three steps:
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Asset inventory
- Your OT vendor will install their platform at every factory owned by your organization, and sweep each location for any OT devices that need to be monitored. The result will be an exhaustive list of every device that you own – and a map of how they connect to other devices in your network.
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Vulnerability assessment
- OT security vendors will evaluate your entire network, looking for two things:
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- Known vulnerabilities – OT vendors, research teams, and professional bodies like the ICS are constantly testing for security weaknesses in OT devices and publishing their findings. Your OT vendor will use that information to analyze your network and match up your devices with their known vulnerabilities, so you can decide how to secure them.
- Active threats – If a vulnerability is a weakness that could be exploited, a threat is a weakness that is already being exploited – in other words, a cybercriminal is using it to try and penetrate your system, or they might already be inside. These need to be dealt with much more urgently.
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Ongoing threat detection
– OT security isn’t a one-off task to check off your list; new cybercriminals might try to infiltrate your system, new vulnerabilities might be published, or new hacking techniques might appear on the scene. Which means your OT cybersecurity solution should be monitoring traffic on your network continuously, looking for signs of malicious activity.
Now, some OT cybersecurity vendors might be able to support parts of this process. Some specialize in asset inventory, others are built to pick up threats as soon as they appear.
But each of these steps is only as effective as the step that came before it. None of them can exist in a vacuum; the best threat detection is useless if there’s a key asset missing from your inventory. And a strong vulnerability assessment does nothing if it’s not used to inform your ongoing threat detection.
If your goal is to truly secure your OT assets, your vendor needs to offer end-to-end coverage. By using the same vendor for every step of the process, you’ll know that every part of the process is supported, and that each stage integrates seamlessly with every other stage.
Even if you want to start slow by securing one step at a time, you’ll need to scale up eventually. So look for an OT vendor that does it all and sees your security holistically.
Does The OT Vendors' Platform Work with a Wide Variety of OT Protocols?
Your security platform needs to speak the same language as your devices – otherwise it won’t be able to parse their data and spot anomalies and signs of malicious activity.
Now, in the world of IT cybersecurity, this is relatively simple. There are industry standards for which protocols to use – set by bodies like the IEEE or the ISO – which almost all software developers use to determine how they organize and transmit data.
So, as long as your IT security platform supports the most common protocols, it will probably integrate easily with all of your organization’s IT software.
That’s not the case for OT, particularly in discrete manufacturing.
The operational technology industry doesn’t really have standard protocols. Every vendor tends to develop their own. In fact, one provider might actually build their devices around multiple proprietary protocols.
It’s part of the reason why many people believe a common myth about OT: that OT systems are too different for standard cybersecurity practices to apply.
This isn’t true. However, this huge range of protocols does mean that your OT cybersecurity vendor needs to be extremely flexible. If you want to make sure every device in your network is covered, you need a platform that can support a huge range of OT protocols.
Not just the protocols used by the devices you have now – but by any devices you might add to your network in the future.
How Do They Make It Easy To Act on Their Insights?
When you first start monitoring your OT security, it can feel a bit like turning on the floodlights.
Everything that has been hidden or overlooked – sometimes for years – is suddenly right there in front of you. That CNC system with the factory-default password. The lathe that’s transmitting sensitive sensor data to an unknown device.
All your OT devices, all the vulnerabilities you’ve overlooked, and all the hidden connections that bad actors are ready to exploit.
It’s satisfying to have all of the information laid out for you. But it can quickly become overwhelming.
With so many devices to oversee and so many potential actions to take, how do you know where to start? What’s most urgent? Which vulnerabilities pose the biggest threat to your business? How much time are you likely to have before a small gap in your defenses becomes a real threat?
The right OT cybersecurity vendor knows how to throw light on the situation – without blinding you.
When you’re reviewing potential OT vendors, ask them how they help you filter and interpret OT cybersecurity data. Instead of presenting you with the raw data, the right platform will:
- Provide you with a clear risk score for every device – and information about how that risk score is calculated
- Let you sort your devices by risk intensity, so you can start by addressing the biggest threats and work downwards
- Generate reports to help you keep track of your risk over time and communicate your findings to the rest of the business
Because your OT cybersecurity vendor isn’t just there to help you understand your risk. It’s their job to put you in a position where you can act on the information they give you – rapidly, accurately, and without getting buried under an avalanche of insights.
Finding the Right Fit for OT Cybersecurity
Securing your OT infrastructure can be an intimidating task, if you’re a discrete manufacturer.
For you, the number of OT assets that need securing could be in the hundreds, or even the thousands for the biggest global companies. You might be trying to track down and monitor devices across a huge range of different sites, owned and operated by people from across your team – few of whom have any idea how to keep your OT safe from cybercriminals.
It’s too big a task to handle alone.
But with the right partner, that intimidating task becomes much simpler.
The best partners will simplify even the most complicated OT systems. They’re built to fit smoothly into your system – integrating with your devices, delivering usable and understandable insights, and handling every stage of the OT security process.
That’s why we built our Cyber Insights platform to be the perfect support and monitoring system for discrete manufacturers. Give it a try, and you’ll find:
- Support for over 150 different protocols, including all of the protocols used in Honeywell OT devices
- Advanced asset cataloging that lets you sort assets by risk score, type of asset, and a range of other filters to help you reach the important insights faster
- Easy reporting, with automatically generated reports and data that’s easy for anyone – even OT security novices – to read and act on
- Comprehensive OT security support, covering every key stage of the process: asset inventory, the initial vulnerability assessment, and ongoing monitoring.
If you’re looking for comprehensive OT security coverage (plus expert support and advice to help you stay 10 steps ahead of cybercriminals) such as provided by SCADAfence, just click below to arrange your first demo of Cyber Insights.
