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The Future of Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric (CASE) Vehicles is Upon Us.

The popularity of electric vehicles is partly a response to the desire of achieving sustainability and carbon footprint reduction. Automobile manufacturers are making substantial investments to tackle emissions issues, create environment-friendly vehicles, and align with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements . To achieve brand edge and investment appeal, automakers market ESG as...
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Choosing the Right Industrial Cybersecurity Framework

It’s no surprise that industrial environments have become increasingly valuable targets for malicious behavior. The State of Security has featured many cybersecurity events across myriad industrial verticals, including but not limited to chemical manufacturing , transportation , power generation and petrochemical . Several of these industries have taken great strides in improving their defense...
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Cyberattacks are targeting smaller healthcare companies and specialty clinics. But why?

The healthcare industry has been a favored target for cybercriminals for many years. In the first half of 2022 alone, 324 attacks against healthcare organizations have been reported. Attackers have primarily focused on large hospitals in years past, but there has been a sudden switch to smaller healthcare companies and specialty clinics. There seems to be a clear trend in attacks against the...
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The Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs): What you need to know

The Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) are a new baseline released jointly by CISA, NIST, and the interagency community, with a goal of providing consistency across all critical infrastructure. The primary webpage for these goals gives us a great understanding of what they are (and are not). It is worth delving into those specifics to understand where the CPGs apply, and how they...
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What the industry wants to improve on NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework was meant to be a dynamic document that is continuously revised, enhanced, and updated. These upgrades allow the Framework to keep up with technological and threat developments, incorporate lessons learned, and transform best practices into standard procedures. NIST created the Framework in 2014 and updated it with CSF 1.1 in April 2018 . The National Institute of...
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How Is IT/OT Convergence Transforming Smart Manufacturing?

For most modern businesses, there’s a divide between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). The difference between these equally integral facets of digital manufacturing is a subject currently under debate. Ultimately, information technology deals with information and data. In contrast, operational technology handles the physical processes necessary to use that information...
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Defense in Depth: 4 Essential Layers of ICS Security

It is always said that security is never a one-size-fits-all solution. This is true not only because of the apparent infinite varieties of equipment in each individual organization, but also, and perhaps more importantly, the different ways that every organization views security. Some spend lots of time focusing on physical security, especially those with industrial control systems ( ICS ). Others...
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Bridging the IT/OT gap with Tripwire’s Industrial Solutions

Cybersecurity has, since its inception, been a corporate-based problem. Whether it is a public, or private corporation, these entities were the primary targets of most cybercrime. In recent years, the industrial sector has increasingly become the target of attack for malicious actors. The reasons include newly internet-connected devices that were once air-gapped , and the immaturity of...
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ICS Security in Healthcare: Why Software Vulnerabilities Pose a Threat to Patient Safety

The lack of healthcare cybersecurity is one of the most significant threats to the sanctity of the global healthcare industry. This is made evident by the fact that in 2020 more than 18 million patient records were affected by successful cyber-attacks on the U.S. healthcare system. Health professionals should not take this issue lightly, as financial assets and intellectual property are at risk...
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US Government warns of new malware attacks on ICS/SCADA systems

Agencies of the US Government have issued a joint warning that hackers have revealed their capability to gain full system access to industrial control systems that might help enemy states sabotage critical infrastructure. In a joint cybersecurity advisory issued by the Department of Energy, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the NSA, and the FBI, a warning is given that...
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What Is the Role of Incident Response in ICS Security?

In recent years, cyber espionage has been growing in magnitude and complexity. One of the most common targets is Industrial Control Systems (ICS) within critical infrastructure sectors. With many organizations relying more heavily on ICS networks, there has been an increase in threats and cyberattacks aimed at these systems. Not only do these attacks have an economic impact, but they also put...
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What Are the Benefits of Adopting the Cloud in Industrial Cybersecurity?

Cloud adoption has come a long way from its early days where corporate executives questioned the stewardship of their data. The initial suspicions of “where’s my data” have been laid to rest, as administrative tools and contractual obligations have emerged to give better visibility to, and accountability of, data custodianship. Even the capabilities of technology professionals have been enhanced...
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ICS Security: What It Is and Why It's a Challenge for Organizations

Industrial control systems (ICS) are specific kinds of assets and associated instrumentation that help to oversee industrial processes. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology , there are three common types of ICS. These are supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which help organizations to control dispersed assets; distributed control systems (DCS)...
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Revisiting the Relevance of the Industrial DMZ (iDMZ)

Which Flavor of the Purdue Model Should You Follow? If you enter the term "Purdue Model" into your favorite search engine, the resulting images will vary considerably. There's almost no better way to stir up an Operational Technology (OT) security conversation than to begin debating what belongs on Level 1 or Level 3 of the model. You might even find some diagrams place operator Human-Machine...
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Mitigating Industrial Production Risk with Tripwire

It seems that the most popular topics in cybersecurity for the last year have been zero trust as well as the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). These developments are good, as they signal some positive motion towards better overall security. Some of the current risks are worth noting, with a forward glance to protecting specific industries such as oil and...
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Delivering Electrons, Generating Data Lakes, and the Security & Privacy Considerations of Running a Modern Industrial Organization

In this episode, Patrick Miller , Founder of Ampere Industrial Security, discusses what utilities and other industrial companies need to consider when it comes to the goldmines of data they're collecting from their machines and customers. He also explains why security and privacy needs to be incorporated in these operations by design. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cMR1D4nastJLUDE4VUXYm?si...
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Partnerships – The Key to Navigating the Industrial Security Landscape

The events of 2020 helped to accelerate the convergence between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) for many organizations. As reported by H elp Net Security , for instance, two-thirds of IT and OT security professionals said in a 2020 survey that their IT and OT networks had become more interconnected in the wake of the pandemic. More than three-quarters of respondents...
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The Next Disruptive ICS Attacker: Only Time Will Tell

Throughout this blog series, I have examined real-world ICS cyber-related incidents as a way of looking back to predict what the next attack may look like. The three categories of attacker that I have considered so far are disgruntled insiders, ransomware groups, and APT. Knowing about past events, their impact, and how they unfolded can be critical for thwarting similar attacks in the future. As...
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The Next Disruptive ICS Attacker: An Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)?

No discussion on ICS attacks could be complete without talking about what some would call, ‘the elephant in the room.’ Critical infrastructure has always been a target for warfare, and modern ICS are no exception. Several high-profile ICS disruptions have in fact been attributed to malicious hackers working at the behest of a military or intelligence agency. Looking at Examples of APTs The...
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The Next Disruptive ICS Attacker: A Ransomware Gang?

OT networks often rely on Windows systems for various ICS applications including HMIs, historians, and data gateways. Beyond that, they also commonly rely on Windows systems to run associated IT-networks . A successful ransomware deployment into either of these networks may prevent engineers from controlling plant operations and lead to an unplanned shutdown. This creates an immediate cost on the...