Fred's Friday Talk (episode 1)

Welcome to my (1st) Friday blog, in which I will address some 'food for thought' before the weekend will start.

Today, it's about VISIBILITY (and the lack of visibility of the OT and IoT attack surface of your organisation)

Most organizations have protected their IT attack surface with several cybersecurity products and/or managed security services.

Most organizations (if not, all) also have an OT and IoT attack surface, which they haven't protected at all. Simply, because they didn't think of these devices when assessing their attack surface. Examples of these OT and IoT devices are power distribution systems like generators, HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) systems, fire extinguising systems, CCTV security cameras, temperature sensors, access control devices and building management systems. In other words: these devices are 'blind spots'.

Unfortunately, malicious hackers love 'blind spots' and don't have any problem in detecting and using them to gain access to the company's network.

It's all about visibility.

So, please look at your own organization and ask yourself if you know all your OT and IoT assets. Do you have an inventory of all your assets? Do you know which asset is connected to which asset? Do you know which assets have remote access to the internet? Do you know which asset contains a vulnerability? Do you know......

And if you're honest, you probably don't know.

But, YOU NEED TO KNOW, because you can't protect what you can't see!

Have a GREAT weekend!

p.s. please contact me if you need help in this 'OT and IoT inventory quest' :-)