As we traverse from one online activity to another, cybercriminals use these opportunities to look for security gaps in accessing our personal and sensitive data. Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) are two types of technology we surround ourselves with every day while unaware of their vulnerabilities. They include devices such as elevators, smartphones, medical sensors, building management systems and more.
With increasing convergence across IT, OT and IoT, individuals and organizations must rethink their approach to cyber risk impact and consequences.
Here are 8 ways to defend against IoT and OT threats shared by Microsoft’s latest Cyber Signals Report:
1. Work with stakeholders- Mapping of business-critical assets, in IT and OT environments is crucial
2. Device visibility: Organizations must have full visibility into the number of IT, OT, and IoT devices in their enterprise, where or how they converge, and the vital data, resources, and utilities accessible across these devices
3. Perform a risk analysis on critical assets: It is important to focus on the business impact of different attack scenarios such as disruption of industrial processes and physical damage to equipment
4. Define a strategy: The next step would be to address the risks identified, driving priority from business impact
5. Implement new and improved policies: Policies stemming from the Zero Trust methodology and best practices provide a holistic approach for enabling seamless security and governance across all your devices
6. Adopt a comprehensive and dedicated security solution: Enable visibility, continuous monitoring, attack surface assessment, threat detection, and response
7. Educate and train: To help incident responders and security specialists better understand their environments and investigate potential incidents, they require training specific to threats originating from or targeting IoT/OT systems
8. Examine means of augmenting existing security operations: Finally, organizations should address IoT and OT security concerns to achieve a unified IT and OT/IoT SOC across all environments.
Follow these steps today to keep cybercrime at bay and maximize your organization’s performance
