The Importance of Early Threat Detection

It’s no secret that, for UK manufacturers, digital technologies are now an operational necessity. By enabling effective and quick data gathering from numerous devices and machines, digital technologies allow manufacturers to work faster, more efficiently and more flexibly, and help reduce costs.

Data and connectivity are the keys to unlocking the benefits of digital technologies as they provide companies with a better understanding of the dynamics of their operations in real time. This lets them improve decision making, consistency and risk assessments in their plants and prevents unscheduled downtime from disrupting production.

However, it is important that businesses understand the potential threat data also poses. Because it is so vital, its value among hackers, who realise the lengths to which businesses will go to protect it, has skyrocketed. Consequently, cyberattacks targeting manufacturers’ OT infrastructures and attempting to access their data are becoming more common.

For example, Chinese spies were charged with commercial espionage for allegedly attempting to steal information regarding the development of new turbofan engine technology during a five-year hacking campaign in 2018.

Using a range of techniques, hackers infiltrated the computer systems of aerospace companies who were manufacturing the engines; once they had gained access to the systems, they stole the jet engine’s blueprints before passing them on to a rival aerospace company.

Successful hacks are also becoming increasingly debilitating. In addition to any financial costs that result from an attack, companies can also suffer disruption to their operations that negatively affects productivity and profitability while they attempt to undo the damage caused by the attack. Furthermore, resources, money and time will be spent identifying, repairing and recovering any affected assets and, if any of the compromised data belongs to customers, manufacturers will have to regain their trust.

The importance of ensuring OT environments are protected has never been greater, so how can manufacturers safeguard their data and stop malicious outside sources from accessing them, while also providing guaranteed uptime?

To protect their data against hackers, manufacturers need to ensure they have an effective anomaly detection solution in place that works continuously and can detect any risks to their OT networks quickly, and that guarantees secure remote access. By identifying and nullifying threats rapidly, companies can prevent an attack before it takes place and stop serious damage from being caused.

Ideally, anomaly detection solutions should also deliver extreme visibility into Industrial Control System (ICS) networks, enabling users to quickly respond to critical process disruptions and system abnormalities. By also providing ongoing visibility into the status and connections of industrial network endpoints, users can protect and secure their ICS networks more effectively.

Continuous threat detection

Manufacturers also need a continuous threat detection solution to ensure their operations are protected around the clock. A solution such as Claroty by industrial IT solutions provider SolutionsPT delivers continuous threat detection that provides real-time threat and vulnerability monitoring. It also provides vital insights into networks by leveraging behavioural analysis techniques. After building a digital model of the entire network and mapping all communications and OT commands in detail, the software monitors any base-line deviations which allows it to spot any anomalies and high-risk changes quickly and respond to them accordingly.

It also provides insights into the security risk posture of OT networks by analysing network traffic over a short period of time, detailing the assets, network communication patterns, vulnerabilities and weaknesses to provide insights into any OT network.

With many organisations allowing employees and contractors to access their network from remote locations, it is also important to proactively manage remote access and control who has access to what. By allowing users to control who can access which parts of a network and monitor and record interactions, this removes an important attack vector.

With solutions such as these, which prevent data loss and protect OT networks, now readily available, manufacturers can finally afford to relax.