The turtle, protected by its exhausting shell, is an effective metaphor for the safety mannequin utilized in most industrial networks. The economic DMZ (iDMZ) is the shell that protects the delicate, susceptible heart—the commercial management programs (ICS) the enterprise relies on.
However whereas the iDMZ blocks most threats, some will inevitably slip by. Once they do, they will transfer sideways from gadget to gadget, doubtlessly inflicting downtime and data leakage. Giving site 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 providers often known as Business 4.0, extra gadgets want entry to manufacturing programs.
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 concept is to tightly prohibit which gadgets can talk and what they will say, confining the injury from cyberattacks to the fewest variety of gadgets. It’s an instance of zero-trust in motion: as a substitute 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 the community to disrupt programs or exfiltrate info.
So why isn’t each industrial group already utilizing micro-segmentation? The barrier I hear most frequently from our prospects is an absence of safety visibility. To micro-segment your community it’s good to know each gadget linked to your community, which different gadgets and programs 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 obligatory device-to-device site visitors, disrupting manufacturing.
Acquire visibility into what’s on the community and the way they’re speaking
Excellent news: Cisco and our accomplice Rockwell Automation have built-in safety visibility into our Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) validated design. With Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient you possibly can rapidly see what’s in your community, which programs speak to one another, and what they’re saying. One buyer advised me he realized 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 data it’s good to create micro-segments. Lastly, visibility can doubtlessly decrease your cyber insurance coverage premiums. Some insurers offer you a reduction or will improve protection limits should you can present you already know what’s linked to your community.
Visibility units the stage for micro-segmentation
When you perceive which gadgets have a legit want to speak, explicitly enable these communications by creating micro-segments, outlined by the ISA/IEC 62443 commonplace. 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 many others.) that enable or block communication between zones. On this approach, a risk 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 Id Providers Engine (ISE) for gadgets that talk through any industrial protocol, together with HTTP, SSH, telnet, CIP, UDP, ICMP, and many others. On your CIP gadgets, you possibly can implement even tighter controls over site visitors circulation utilizing Rockwell Automation’s CIP Safety, which secures manufacturing networks on the software degree. We have now a number of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) on a variety of safety subjects, many collectively developed and examined with Rockwell. Examples of our collaboration with Rockwell embody Converged Plantwide Ethernet, or CPwE, and the just lately 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 talents of a turtle and a lizard. Just like the turtle’s shell, the iDMZ helps maintain predators out. And like lizards who can drop their tails if a predator will get maintain, micro-segmentation limits injury from an assault.
Backside line: To get began with micro-segmentation—and doubtlessly 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 be taught extra about how Cisco and Rockwell will help strengthen OT/ICS safety with visibility for CPwE, be a part of us for a webinar on November 14. Register right here.
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