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Extending Zero Trust Safety to Industrial Networks

 

Recent cyber attacks on industrial organizations and critical infrastructures have managed to get clear: operational also it networks are inseparably linked. With digitization, data must seamlessly flow between enterprise IT and industrial OT networks for the continuing business to operate. This tighter integration between IT, OT, and Cloud domains has increased the attack surface of both – the industrial and the enterprise networks.

The original security perimeter that industrial organizations have built over time by installing industrial demilitarized zone (IDMZ) is not any longer sufficient. While this is actually the mandatory first step to safeguard operations still, embracing the digital industry revolution requires additional security measures, let’s assume that no user, application, or connected device anymore are trustworthy.

The Zero Trust Security model that lots of are actually implementing to secure the enterprise workforce, workloads, and the workplace should be extended to industrial operations. It continuously verifies resources to determine compliance and rely upon every access request. It identifies not users just, but endpoints, and applications to grant them the absolute minimum access they want.

Not long ago i presented a webinar explaining the precise Zero Trust requirements for IoT/OT networks:

    • Endpoint visibility. Gaining detailed visibility of what’s connected is key. Both to understand everything you are protecting in addition to verifying the identity of every device continuously. Yet, most industrial organizations operate lacking any up-to-date asset inventory still.

 

    • Endpoint compliance. Most industrial assets have software vulnerabilities that must definitely be identified to plan corrective measures with the operations team. Oftentimes, the sheer level of vulnerabilities become overwhelming to control. You will need risk scoring to prioritize your technique for compliance improvement.

 

    • Network segmentation. Most industrial devices have already been developed without security features. A tool has been granted access once, it should be put into an industrial zone as defined by the ISA99/IEC-62443 Isolating industrial devices with micro and macro segmentation techniques (along with isolating the complete industrial domain having an IDMZ) is the best approach to ensure threats could be contained.

 

    • Threat response and detection. Zero Trust doesn’t stop once access has been granted. Communications are monitored to detect malicious traffic and abnormal behaviors continuously. Events are reported with the correct context in order that remediation can be carried out quickly without impacting industrial operations.

 

 

Being the first choice in both cybersecurity and industrial networking markets, Cisco may be the only vendor available on the market supplying a comprehensive probably, validated architecture for extending Zero Trust Security to industrial workplaces.

      Cisco Cyber Vision           was created to help industrial organizations gain visibility to their industrial network, discover all devices, identify known vulnerabilities, determine risks, and detect threats or abnormal behaviors. Since it is made into Cisco industrial network infrastructure, Cyber Vision could be deployed at scale with no need of additional appliances or out-of-band collection network.

This detailed set of industrial devices is shared in real-time with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) where security policies are manufactured. Once IT and OT have defined the industrial production or zones cells they would like to secure, It’ll create Security Group Tags (SGT) in ISE to specify which communications are allowed between zones. OT users now have to place industrial devices in to the corresponding group utilizing the Cyber Vision graphical interface for the proper security policy to be automatically put on them.

Downtime is quite disruptive in industrial environments, so it’s crucial to monitor policy behavior before enforcement. The Policy Analytics module in the Cisco DNA Center network management platform enables you to visualize real-time traffic flows between groups to make sure your policy won’t block communications which are necessary for the industrial process. You’re at ease the monitored policy once, it is possible to activate the policy enforcement through Cisco DNA Center.

This simple workflow enables effective collaboration between IT and OT to define zone segmentation and enforce Zero Rely upon the IoT/OT network. IT leverages tools made to manage and secure networks. OT remains self-sufficient with a tool that understands the industrial process. New devices will never be allowed in to the network until OT places them in the zone they participate in with a simple drag and drop within Cyber Vision. Moving a tool from a zone to some other will modify the security policy put on it automatically.

Zero Trust doesn’t stop once access has been granted. Communications from also to industrial devices should be monitored to recognize malicious traffic and abnormal behaviors which could disrupt production. As Cyber Vision is embedded in to the industrial network, it sees everything and continuously decodes application flows to detect threats by leveraging signatures from Cisco Talos and behavioral baselines defined by OT. {All these security reported ://www to Cisco SecureX for investigation and remediation.

{This comprehensive and validated architecture {enables you to} easily extend Zero Trust Security to your industrial domain today.|This comprehensive and validated architecture {enables you to} extend Zero Trust Security to your industrial domain today easily.} {Find out more} by watching the replay of the webinar {Not long ago i} presented.

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