29 Jul 2025 | A Year In OT Security, July
Access control is one area where ICS have had robust security controls for decades. These access controls can be customized down to the point or tag level, although this is rarely required. Remember our goal is to enforce least privilege. A user should only be able to...
22 Jul 2025 | A Year In OT Security, July
Week 35 addressed user accounts for cyber assets at unmanned sites. This week you will perform a user account review on all OT systems as part of your OT cyber maintenance. Identify all OT applications, systems, and devices that have user accounts. These could be...
8 Jul 2025 | A Year In OT Security, July
Last week you identified the types and number of OT cyber assets in each of the three security patching categories. This week you will take this information and develop an OT Security Patching Program and Schedule. Remember the guiding factor is efficient risk...
1 Jul 2025 | A Year In OT Security, July
Security patching can be a high resource task if you try to apply security patches to all your OT cyber assets on a frequent basis, such as monthly or quarterly. The risk reduction achieved through this large effort is typically minimal given the insecure by design...
25 Jun 2025 | A Year In OT Security, June
Good security practice requires user authentication on all systems and applications. It also requires users to logout or be locked out when they physically leave the area or leave the cyber asset idle for too long. Many OT environments and cyber assets don’t follow...
18 Jun 2025 | A Year In OT Security, June
You probably aren’t a physical security expert. I’m not. We should rely on people with domain expertise to design and evaluate physical security. Your task this week is to evaluate the physical security assumptions and plan at OT manned sites and areas. What are...
11 Jun 2025 | A Year In OT Security, June
In a perfect world, all removable media and portable computers connected to OT would be dedicated to OT. They would only be connected and used on OT. Never on IT or any other network. One way to achieve this is to deploy data transfer servers in an OT DMZ that can...
4 Jun 2025 | A Year In OT Security, June
Many OT security professionals have busted the airgap myth by asking questions on how software or firmware updates, schedules, recipes, anti-virus signatures, or applications are brought into the OT environment. They often are brought in through the approved OT...
30 May 2025 | A Year In OT Security, May
De-militarized zones (DMZ), semi-trusted zones, are a common electronic security perimeter good practice. The firewall segmenting IT from the Internet will often have one or more DMZ to limit direct Internet to IT network communication. A web server, database...
28 May 2025 | A Year In OT Security, May
Your task this week will vary based on the type of system you operate. Asset owners with SCADA have more work this week. SCADA Systems SCADA systems monitoring and controlling geographically dispersed systems, such as pipelines, electric grids, and water delivery,...
