The turtle, protected by its onerous shell, is an efficient metaphor for the safety mannequin utilized in most industrial networks. The commercial DMZ (iDMZ) is the shell that protects the tender, susceptible middle—the commercial management programs (ICS) the enterprise is dependent upon.

However whereas the iDMZ blocks most threats, some will inevitably slip via. After they do, they’ll transfer sideways from system to system, doubtlessly inflicting downtime and data leakage. Giving site visitors free rein as soon as it makes it previous the iDMZ conflicts with the zero-trust safety precept to by no means belief, all the time confirm. And as corporations look to “digitize” manufacturing and apply extra cloud-based companies also referred to as Business 4.0, extra units want entry to manufacturing programs.

The reply is micro-segmentation—however there’s a barrier

You’ll be able to restrict the unfold of malware that makes it previous the iDMZ utilizing a way referred to as micro-segmentation. The thought is to tightly limit which units can talk and what they’ll say, confining the harm from cyberattacks to the fewest variety of units. It’s an instance of zero-trust in motion: as an alternative of taking it on religion that units solely discuss to one another for respectable causes, you lay down the principles. An HVAC system shouldn’t be speaking to a robotic, for instance. Whether it is, the HVAC system could have been commandeered by a nasty actor who’s now traipsing via the community to disrupt programs or exfiltrate info.

So why isn’t each industrial group already utilizing micro-segmentation? The barrier I hear most frequently from our clients is an absence of safety visibility. To micro-segment your community it’s worthwhile to know each system linked to your community, which different units and programs it wants to speak to, and which protocols are in use. Missing this visibility can result in overly permissive insurance policies, rising the assault floor. Simply as unhealthy, you would possibly inadvertently block essential device-to-device site visitors, disrupting manufacturing.

Achieve visibility into what’s on the community and the way they’re speaking

Excellent news: Cisco and our companion Rockwell Automation have built-in safety visibility into our Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE) validated design. With Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient you’ll be able to shortly see what’s in your community, which programs discuss to one another, and what they’re saying. One buyer instructed me he discovered from Cyber Imaginative and prescient that a few of his units had a hidden mobile backdoor!

Safety visibility has three large payoffs. One is consciousness of threats like that backdoor, or suspicious communications patterns just like the HVAC system speaking to the robotic. One other profit is offering the data it’s worthwhile to create micro-segments. Lastly, visibility can doubtlessly decrease your cyber insurance coverage premiums. Some insurers provide you with a reduction or will improve protection limits should you can present you already know what’s linked to your community.

Visibility units the stage for micro-segmentation

When you perceive which units have a respectable want to speak, explicitly permit these communications by creating micro-segments, outlined by the ISA/IEC 62443 customary. Right here’s a good clarification of how micro-segments work. Briefly, you create zones containing a gaggle of units with related safety necessities, a transparent bodily border, and the necessity to discuss to one another. Conduits are the communication mechanisms (e.g. VLANs, routers, entry lists, and so forth.) that permit or block communication between zones. On this method, a risk that will get into one zone can’t simply transfer to a different.

Each Cisco and Rockwell Automation present instruments for segmenting the community. Use Cisco Identification Companies Engine (ISE) for units that talk by way of any industrial protocol, together with HTTP, SSH, telnet, CIP, UDP, ICMP, and so forth. On your CIP units, you’ll be able to implement even tighter controls over site visitors movement utilizing Rockwell Automation’s CIP Safety, which secures manufacturing networks on the utility stage. We’ve a number of Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) on a spread of safety matters, many collectively developed and examined with Rockwell. Examples of our collaboration with Rockwell embody Converged Plantwide Ethernet, or CPwE, and the not too long ago added Safety Visibility for CPwE primarily based on Cisco Cyber Imaginative and prescient.

A lesson from nature

Combining an iDMZ with micro-segmentation is like mixing the protecting skills of a turtle and a lizard. Just like the turtle’s shell, the iDMZ helps hold predators out. And like lizards who can drop their tails if a predator will get maintain, micro-segmentation limits harm from an assault.

Backside line: To get began with micro-segmentation—and doubtlessly decrease your cyber insurance coverage premiums—use Cyber Imaginative and prescient to see what units are in your community and what they’re saying.

To study extra about how Cisco and Rockwell might help strengthen OT/ICS safety with visibility for CPwE, be a part of us for a webinar on November 14. Register right here.

Study extra

Share: