Operational Technology (OT) Security

Traditionally, risk management uses historically successful IT preventive controls, such as hardening, patching, SDLC, active vulnerability assessment, and tight access control. However, this is no longer enough in the OT/ICS world. Processes and people are used to operating mission-critical systems with only safety in mind, change management runs at a different pace, and trust between components is the norm. To secure the complex systems of today, a different approach is needed.

To address the problem, Conscia acts as detective and observes OT/ICS systems in real-time, quickly responding to any suspicious or anomalous behavior. This provides the following benefits:

• Fast detection of intruders and malicious code (minutes to hours), enabling extremely quick response processes to limit damage and business loss. For comparison, attackers spent 6 months examining the target ICS in the 2015 Ukraine power distribution attacks.
• No change and no interference with existing OT applications and processes, to ensure uninterrupted operations using today’s technology.

Our solution is based on OT network data capture and anomaly-based analysis and detection, using completely passive network sensors at the customer site. By creating baselines of known good system behavior, we can detect suspicious or malicious deviations and known, specific attacks against the system.

Our solution can be operated by your business or managed by Conscia’s Security Operations Center (SOC). Our analysts are trained in ICS/OT risks and vulnerabilities and react to alerts with the help of extensive automation.