OT security for manufacturing: A practical guide to shop floor cybersecurity

Punti principali

• Unplanned downtime is a critical business risk, with one hour of downtime costing 98% of manufacturing organizations more than $100,000 per hour.
• Legacy OT systems are a top attack vector: 47% of security breaches in manufacturing involve exploitation of a vulnerability in an OT system.
• Traditional IT security tools are not designed for shop floor environments and are often disruptive to them.

The core challenge: Balancing production and protection

The push for digital transformation in manufacturing has delivered incredible results. Smart factory initiatives are driving a 10% increase in production output, an 11% increase in capacity utilization, and a labor productivity increase of 12%.

But these efficiencies have a downside.

As your organization adopts more connected technologies, your attack surface expands. You face new and unprecedented challenges that put your organization’s productivity, safety, and security at risk. 

Many facilities rely on legacy operational technology (OT) and cyber-physical systems not designed for network connectivity and that you cannot easily patch. The risk of insider threats, whether malicious or accidental, compounds this challenge and can cause significant unplanned downtime.

Traditional IT security tools are not the answer. They can be intrusive or disruptive and create the very downtime you are trying to prevent. Instead, you need a specialized solution designed for the complex realities of your factory floor.

• Read the white paper to learn how to proactively secure your shop floor and limit downtime.

Four foundational requirements for practical shop floor cybersecurity

To mitigate the risk of disruption, prioritize manufacturing cybersecurity as part your digital transformation.

Your comprehensive strategy should include these four capabilities:

1. Complete visibility into IT and OT devices in environment. Track asset model, family, firmware version, operating system, hardware version.
2. Risk-based vulnerability management. This approach helps you prioritize which vulnerabilities pose the greatest threat to your critical operations so you can focus remediation where it matters most.
3. Early threat detection. You need the ability to detect threats early, before an incident causes disruption.
4. Misconfiguration monitoring. Human error or malicious activity can cause misconfigurations that compromise safety and productivity. Monitoring device configurations against a known "good" baseline is vital to catching unauthorized changes in real time.

• Get the guide to put the foundational capabilities for OT security to work for you.

How Tenable OT Security protects your operations

Tenable OT Security is an OT security solution that can help you address the unique challenges of complex OT environments. It provides four capabilities in a single, non-disruptive platform. 

• Asset discovery: Tenable uses a hybrid asset discovery approach. It passively monitors your network to discover devices and, once classified, safely queries OT assets using their native protocols. This approach allows Tenable OT Security to track deep details, including serial numbers and backplane configuration for IT and OT equipment.
• Prioritization: Tenable layers an Asset Criticality Rating (ACR) with a Vulnerability Priority Rating (VPR) and other threat intelligence to give you a clear, risk-based approach for prioritizing the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk to your most critical OT assets.
• Intrusion detection: The OT security platform's robust intrusion detection system (IDS) engine, which uses rules written by Tenable Research, identifies threats lurking in your environment. It continuously monitors for anomalies and policy deviations, such as a controller setting that deviates from an approved parameter.

Baseline tracking: Tenable OT Security captures a complete baseline snapshot of your devices, including firmware, software, complete ladder logic, diagnostic buffer, and tag structure. It then tracks a full history of controller activities and monitors for changes to configurations in real time, so you know about unauthorized modifications that could impact production.

A unified strategy for industrial cybersecurity

Securing your shop floor means securing a converged IT and OT ecosystem, including everything from new IoT devices to legacy industrial control systems (ICS).

Tenable OT Security gives you deep, specialized operational technology security to protect your industrial assets. It also integrates with a comprehensive exposure management platform, giving your security teams a unified view of cyber risk across your entire organization, from the factory floor to the cloud.

• Find out how Tenable OT Security can help protect your converged IT/OT environment.

Frequently asked questions about OT security

Find answers to common questions about operational technology (OT) security.

What is OT security?

Operational technology (OT) security protects industrial control systems (ICS) and OT environments from cyber threats.

Why is manufacturing a target for cyber attacks?

Manufacturing is a top target because its reliance on legacy OT systems creates security gaps. One report found that about 47% of manufacturing industry breaches stem from known vulnerability exploits. Attackers also target manufacturers to cause unplanned downtime, which costs 98% of organizations more than $100,000 per hour.

What is the difference between IT security and OT security?

IT security primarily protects data (confidentiality and integrity). OT security prioritizes operational continuity, uptime, and the safety of physical processes and people. Traditional IT security tools are often too disruptive for OT environments.

How does Tenable discover OT assets safely??

Tenable OT Security uses a hybrid approach to safely discover assets. It begins with passive monitoring to discover devices on your network. Once classified, it can also use native, non-disruptive protocols to query OT assets for deep details like firmware versions and backplane configurations.

What is industrial cybersecurity?

Industrial cybersecurity involves protecting the industrial control systems (ICS), networks, and devices that run critical infrastructure, such as manufacturing plants. Its main goal is to prevent cyber threats from causing operational disruption or safety incidents.

• Ready to protect your operations? Get the “Cybersecurity for the Manufacturing Shop Floor” white paper now.