The increased connectivity of OT systems to the outside world has led to a surge in cyber-attacks across the globe last year.  Today, meters, gauges, sensors and control systems from multiple vendors coexist and are all connected to the network, increasing process efficiency and expanding the attack surface.   Staying ahead of evolving cyber threats is paramount for an organization’s success.   CISOs at top industrial organizations often prioritize cybersecurity as an critical component to their digital transformation plans.  During this brief, we will explore best practices pursued by global organizations to reduce cyber risks and improve operational efficiencies including

• Informing decisions with proactive threat intelligence to stay ahead of potential threats
• Establishing network controls to enforce policies for users, devices and applications using segmentation and micro segmentation
• Reducing organization risk with layered defense

Late in 2022 IDC predicted that by  2025, 50% of organizations will increase the use of IoT and OT cybersecurity solutions at the edge, cutting OT cybersecurity breaches in half.

Operational Technology (OT) has been evolving since the industrial age began to the extent that some of the most advanced factories today operate with minimal human intervention, allowing the robotic technologies to undertake most, if not all, the manufacturing process. In critical industries such as power generation and distribution, and water treatment and distribution OT has revolutionized how we can access these services with great ease.

Meanwhile the rise of Information Technology (IT) was driven by a need to do business faster, more effectively, at greater scale and with fewer errors and, for the most part, IT has delivered to these requirements.

Today, due to the demands of a Digital First strategy and Industry 4.0, the need to integrate IT and OT more deeply has become a business strategy, however security is today the greatest concern and challenge to this IT/OT integration effort. Until recently the differences between what IT security could address and what OT integration required meant that the ability to deeply integrate these two, seemingly complementary technologies, was considered too much of a risk to the OT side of things and was often shelved as a project for a later date.

That later date has now arrived! Digital First demands the integration of OT and IT, and the uprising of a new batch of OT-specific malware threats means that whilst the security issue has not gone away, the strategy and approach to dealing with this has changed and, along with the business imperative, the time to act is now.

IDC has been studying this situation for several years and is now providing guidance on why organizations need to accelerate this IT/OT convergence, what are the consideration that need to be taken to secure OT and IT integration.

In recent years, we have seen a rise in the sophistication and quantity of cyber attacks on OT infrastructure.   OT is particularly vulnerable as threats from that past that required a physical presence through a USB file transfer (or the like) are now using the power of the combine cyber/physical environments to attack OT equipment.  Cybercrime such as Ransomware is becoming more like APT attacks.  Advanced, persistent, and targeted in nature. Attackers are spending more time on the weaponization phase of the ATT&CK framework pre-ATT&CK. Many attacks go undetected until ransomware encrypts their systems or the threat actors sell the data on underground markets

In this brief, we will discuss about the most prevalent cyber attacks targeting OT systems in 2022 and show you how to protect your critical infrastructure - securing both modern and legacy equipment – without impacting the safety and uptime goals of the business.

Digital transformation is causing a shift in the risk model for industrial security as the data produced by operations becomes more connected to the internet. With transformation comes gains in efficiency, productivity and new data used to inform decisions.  Transformation also increases the number of connected devices, users and applications on the network attracting the attention of the bad actor and expanding the attack surface.  During this session, we’ll explore:

• Market trends impacting the risk equation
• Aligning cybersecurity strategy to risk model
• How Key challenges were overcome along the OT Security Journey

Industry 4.0 is a journey for organizations to progressively transform their process and operations to do more with less. While digital transformation has brought tremendous benefits to organizations, the expanded attack surface due to IT/OT convergence has also increased the risks of cyber breaches to OT networks.  Compounding the challenges, the point security product deployments and legacy OT systems have led to system complexity, affecting performance and overall security.

In this session, you will learn how Fortinet Security Fabric can simplify your security strategy and improve efficiencies.

As more OT systems get connected to the outside network, the once air-gapped networks are now exposed to cyber attacks.  As a result, the industry sectors were seeing a surge in cyber breaches in 2022 as they embark on their Industry 4.0 journey.  Based on a recent OT security survey in Asia, it was reported that 9 out of 10 organizations had experienced at least one intrusion last year.  Although the maturity level of OT security differs across different industries, one certain thing is that reducing cyber risks is paramount in a Digital-First economy.

During the panel session, the panelists will discuss about best practices of OT security including

• How do organizations define their Industrial 4.0 strategies? Any changes in priorities before and after COVID-19?
• What are the various security considerations when outlining plans for Industrial 4.0?
• How do organizations streamline their processes and team to cover OT security when security was predominately focused only on the IT network previously?

Moderator:

Closing Session.