The turtle, protected by its onerous shell, is an efficient metaphor for the safety mannequin utilized in most industrial networks. The commercial DMZ (iDMZ) is the shell that protects the delicate, weak middle—the commercial management techniques (ICS) the enterprise is determined by.
However whereas the iDMZ blocks most threats, some will inevitably slip by means of. After they do, they will transfer sideways from machine to machine, probably inflicting downtime and knowledge leakage. Giving visitors free rein as soon as it makes it previous the iDMZ conflicts with the zero-trust safety precept to by no means belief, all the time confirm. And as firms look to “digitize” manufacturing and apply extra cloud-based companies also referred to as Business 4.0, extra gadgets want entry to manufacturing techniques.
The reply is micro-segmentation—however there’s a barrier
You may restrict the unfold of malware that makes it previous the iDMZ utilizing a method known as micro-segmentation. The thought is to tightly limit which gadgets can talk and what they will say, confining the harm from cyberattacks to the fewest variety of gadgets. It’s an instance of zero-trust in motion: as an alternative of taking it on religion that gadgets solely speak to one another for legit causes, you lay down the principles. An HVAC system shouldn’t be speaking to a robotic, for instance. Whether it is, the HVAC system could have been commandeered by a foul actor who’s now traipsing by means of the community to disrupt techniques or exfiltrate info.
So why isn’t each industrial group already utilizing micro-segmentation? The barrier I hear most frequently from our clients is an absence of safety visibility. To micro-segment your community that you must know each machine related to your community, which different gadgets and techniques it wants to speak to, and which protocols are in use. Missing this visibility can result in overly permissive insurance policies, rising the assault floor. Simply as unhealthy, you would possibly inadvertently block mandatory device-to-device visitors, disrupting manufacturing.
Acquire visibility into what’s on the community and the way they’re speaking
Excellent news: Cisco and our companion Rockwell Automation have built-in safety visibility into our Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) validated design. With Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient you may shortly see what’s in your community, which techniques speak to one another, and what they’re saying. One buyer informed me he discovered from Cyber Imaginative and prescient that a few of his gadgets had a hidden mobile backdoor!
Safety visibility has three huge payoffs. One is consciousness of threats like that backdoor, or suspicious communications patterns just like the HVAC system speaking to the robotic. One other profit is offering the knowledge that you must create micro-segments. Lastly, visibility can probably decrease your cyber insurance coverage premiums. Some insurers offer you a reduction or will enhance protection limits in case you can present you understand what’s related to your community.
Visibility units the stage for micro-segmentation
When you perceive which gadgets have a legit want to speak, explicitly permit these communications by creating micro-segments, outlined by the ISA/IEC 62443 normal. Right here’s a good rationalization of how micro-segments work. Briefly, you create zones containing a bunch of gadgets with comparable safety necessities, a transparent bodily border, and the necessity to speak to one another. Conduits are the communication mechanisms (e.g. VLANs, routers, entry lists, and so on.) that permit or block communication between zones. On this method, a menace that will get into one zone can’t simply transfer to a different.
Each Cisco and Rockwell Automation present instruments for segmenting the community. Use Cisco Identification Providers Engine (ISE) for gadgets that talk through any industrial protocol, together with HTTP, SSH, telnet, CIP, UDP, ICMP, and so on. On your CIP gadgets, you may implement even tighter controls over visitors circulation utilizing Rockwell Automation’s CIP Safety, which secures manufacturing networks on the utility degree. We’ve a number of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) on a spread of safety subjects, many collectively developed and examined with Rockwell. Examples of our collaboration with Rockwell embody Converged Plantwide Ethernet, or CPwE, and the not too long ago added Safety Visibility for CPwE based mostly on Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient.
A lesson from nature
Combining an iDMZ with micro-segmentation is like mixing the protecting skills of a turtle and a lizard. Just like the turtle’s shell, the iDMZ helps hold predators out. And like lizards who can drop their tails if a predator will get maintain, micro-segmentation limits harm from an assault.
Backside line: To get began with micro-segmentation—and probably decrease your cyber insurance coverage premiums—use Cyber Imaginative and prescient to see what gadgets are in your community and what they’re saying.
To study extra about how Cisco and Rockwell might help strengthen OT/ICS safety with visibility for CPwE, be part of us for a webinar on November 14. Register right here.
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