It’s fitting that National Cybersecurity Awareness Month aligns with spooky season. While cybersecurity is a year-round responsibility, dedicating October to it provides a chance to spotlight threats lurking in the shadows. It’s an opportunity to deepen our understanding of current risks and illuminate a path toward stronger defenses against the cyber scaries.
At Industrial Defender, we’re focused on increasing cyber awareness across critical infrastructure and operational technology (OT) environments. More specially, helping owners and operators increase situational awareness of what’s happening within the OT environments that drive essential services like electricity, oil and gas, water, and transportation.
There may be some scary things lurking in your OT environment—vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or unknown devices that could threaten your operations. These can be scary to find, but the real fright comes from what you don’t know.
That’s why achieving situational awareness is essential - so you know what you’re dealing with and how to address them.
Here are our Cybersecurity Awareness Month tips for increasing situational awareness and hardening your OT environment:
Maintain Comprehensive Asset Inventories
Unknowns are always the scariest. No system or device should be lurking in the shadows of your OT environment. Be diligent about keeping a detailed inventory of all assets—hardware, software, and any systems that interact with your network. By accounting for everything, you can avoid hidden risks so that nothing goes unnoticed. Comprehensive visibility is your first line of defense in managing cyber risks effectively.
Get Granular with Your Monitoring
While asset inventories are a strong foundation, they should be more than just a list of devices. They should include details like software versions, configurations, open ports and services, and known vulnerabilities. Tracking at this level allows you to catch sophisticated threats that may slip through perimeter defenses, including "living off the land" techniques—where attackers exploit trusted tools already in your environment. Monitoring configurations and services helps spot issues even when everything appears legitimate. The more detailed your visibility, the better equipped you are to detect and address potential threats.
Yes, Passwords and MFA Matter in OT Too
One of CISA’s general cybersecurity tips is the importance of strong passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA), and this applies to OT environments just as much as IT. Monitoring whether HMIs (Human-Machine Interfaces) and workstations meet password policies and have MFA enabled is crucial. These are configuration elements that must be checked regularly and corrected if they fall out of compliance, helping to prevent unauthorized access and maintain operational security.
Manage Software Versions
Another CISA tip is keeping software updated, which can be important but tricky in OT environments. You don’t want to rush updates or changes that could disrupt sensitive OT systems. Maintaining an accurate asset inventory and regularly monitoring software versions and firmware ensures you always know what’s in use, along with any related vulnerabilities and patches. This information allows you to make informed decisions about when and how to apply updates safely, minimizing risks to operations.
Automate Monitoring to Stay Ahead
Automation is key to staying ahead of threats without overwhelming your team. Automating OT asset monitoring ensures you always have up-to-date information on your systems. Integrating various data collection methods (e.g., passive and active monitoring) provides a comprehensive and safe approach to gathering data, helping you reduce human error and freeing up your team to focus on more strategic security tasks.
Stay Alert to Change
OT environments are typically stable, so significant changes should immediately raise red flags. Baseline your normal operations and set up alerts for any deviations. If new software is installed on a critical asset without authorization, this could be a security issue and/or cause an operational problem. Monitoring for such changes in real-time ensures you catch potential threats early and respond quickly, protecting your systems from exploitation.
Good Reporting Matters
Monitoring is only valuable if you can easily understand and act on the data. Ensure your reporting systems are clear and accessible, allowing you to quickly assess what’s happening and share insights across teams. In some cases, these reports may also serve to prove compliance, so it’s essential to have clear, actionable data that can support both security and regulatory needs.
Defending Against the Cyber Scaries Starts with Awareness
As we move through October and National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to shine a light on the hidden risks in your OT environment. Defending against the "cyber scaries" starts with knowing every detail of your systems. From hardware and software to configurations and vulnerabilities, having complete visibility is key to keeping your operations secure and running smoothly—without any spooky surprises.
A robust OT asset management system provides you with the up-to-date, real-time information needed to uncover lurking threats and address them before they cause harm. At Industrial Defender, we offer comprehensive solutions that help you enhance situational awareness, monitor for vulnerabilities, and protect your OT environment from the shadows.
Learn how Industrial Defender help you improve full situational awareness and keep threats at bay: https://www.industrialdefender.com/ot-cyber-risk-management
