The Diana Initiative 2021

We all have an inherent need to protect the aspects of our lives that are most important to us. The cars we drive every day to work, the medicines we take every morning, and the electricity we use without a second thought all come from Industrial Control Systems (ICS) or Operating Technology (OT) infrastructures. Exploitation of infrastructure vulnerabilities can cause power outages, shortages in vehicle manufacture, interruptions in manufacturing lines, disruptions in the availability of pharmaceuticals, and a million other possibilities, all of which can impact the health, safety, and wellbeing of our households, community, and the world.

When ICS was initially implemented, the focus was often on increased productivity, physical safety, availability, and product quality. Security controls were typically limited and layered on after the environment was designed – which increases an environment’s risk.

There isn't a single way to alleviate risk; however, there are multiple controls that, when paired together, can help strategically increase the security of OT environments, such as network segmentation, OT security monitoring, incident response, and secure remote access. Although OT devices and systems may be prone to more risk and vulnerabilities, proper strategic and tactical implementation of priorities and controls can strengthen the maturity of security in these environments. This in turn safeguards our daily lives, health, and well-being.