CISA Shields Up – Misleading & Wise
CISA launched their Shields Up campaign in mid-February purportedly to meet the increased threat Russia posed due the war in Ukraine. From the initial release: While there are not currently any specific credible threats to the U.S. homeland, we are mindful of the...
OT Is Different Than IT … So What Is Your Uniquely OT Security Solution?
We have mantras in ICS security and OT that we say, and mostly believe, but we don’t act as if they are true. My favorite is OT is different than IT. Have you ever heard that before? Have you ever said it? When I hear someone say this what they usually mean is: keep...
Living With Dirty Cyber Assets
The theme for S4x22 was No Limits. In my 10-minute opening of the event, I suggested one way to break free from limits is to take conventional wisdom and flip it. Look at the world as if the opposite were true. I gave three examples, and my favorite was: flipping...
The ICS Dichotomy of Surface Area
I finished up Volume 3 of The Great Mental Models and the model, or concept, that has me thinking is Surface Area. Where we need to reduce it and where we need to expand it. The application to security is obvious and used in the chapter. We want to minimize the attack...
Will CISA Recommend Securing ICS?
Hold on – – – hasn’t CISA since its birth and DHS before that recommended securing ICS? No, not really. The recommendations have been keep the attackers out, perform cyber hygiene, and detect attacks, but they have rarely recommended the monitoring...
Shields Up For ICS
The US CISA put out a Shields Up advisory in conjunction with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s probably necessary, as they would have been disparaged if they didn’t, and not terribly useful. The recommendations were primarily the same as they have been...
Let’s Talk: Level 0 and Risk Management
Three topics for this week’s article: Importance, Risk Management, and Level 0 Risk Reduction. Importance Joe Weiss, who I call the Paul Revere of ICS security for his yeoman’s work raising the alarm in the 2000 – 2010 decade, was not a fan of my...
Pivot To Process Variable Anomaly Detection
Summary: Vendors who are focused on compromise of Level 0 to Level 1 communications should pivot to process variable anomaly detection. There are a handful of vendors (Siga being the most active, Mission Secure, Fortiphyd, … and a couple I likely missed) who focus on...