OT Security

Operational technology (OT) is hardware and software that detects or causes a change, through the direct monitoring and/or control of industrial equipment's, assets, processes and events. It? monitors and controls physical processes, devices and infrastructure. OT can be used across many industries and in different environmental condition.

?Every OT environment has unique components and industrial security management processes that can be customized to meet your specific needs.?

Some of the OT network components include:-

?ICS (Industrial Control Systems) - These are the main components of OT. They consists of systems that are used for monitoring and controlling industrial processes. They control SCADA and DCS(Distributed control systems).

SCADA(Supervisory control and data acquisition) - SCADA collects real-time data from various sensors. They helps you to visualize the OT environment. It includes sensors, PLCs, RTUs and so on.

In contrast to an IT environment, OT systems uses passive monitoring as they need to be extremely stable and consistent. OT networks demand a thorough knowledge of what devices are connected to the network and also the amount and type of traffic that these devices generate. Another reason for this is the amount of precision with which OT equipment's work. Any external active connection attempt could impact this timing which can cause unexpected consequences.

The problem with passive monitoring only is that it focuses only on traffic that is traversing the network. It misses potential risks created by assets that are “dormant” and do not communicate over the network. In an OT environment very easily at least 20% can be such devices and missing that data is putting us in a great risk.