In an increasingly connected world, the energy industry stands as a critical infrastructure sector facing a unique set of cybersecurity challenges. As utilities and energy companies adopt advanced technologies to enhance efficiency and reliability, they also open doors to sophisticated cyber threats. From smart grids and smart assets to complex supply chains, the attack surfaces have expanded, making the industry a prime target for incidents.
OT-SDN (Software Defined Networking) brings a practical approach to reducing cyber risk and increasing uptime across OT environments. By centralizing control, automating processes, and enhancing security, OT-SDN promises to enhance industrial communication and control networks for the energy sector.
Here are three common challenges that energy companies face and how OT-SDN can help solve them.
Challenge #1: Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks bring many considerations to energy companies today. Vulnerabilities come in the form of people, products, and technology making some easier to secure than others. Whether it’s ransomware or malware, the primary goal is to stop attacks from propagating across the network. The critical nature of the energy industry makes it attractive for cyber criminals to try to take command and control over OT assets.
Solution: Protect your OT assets with SDN Simple Segmentation
OT-SDN can limit the ability for a bad actor to take control of your OT network by allowing only whitelisted east/west traffic thus blocking the lateral movement of an intruder. Security best practices often focus on north/south traffic, which tends to be the communication between internal and external networks, but cyber threats are increasingly targeting the data flow between internal networked devices and systems. The Veracity OT-SDN solution enables specific access control. This zero-trust security model allows only known devices and protocols to access specified environments.
Using firewalls, VLANs, and Access Control Lists (ACLs) add complexity to the network and are an administrative burden. Implementing OT-SDN, even on a subset of your overall network, provides a simple and powerful approach to micro-segmentation.
Challenge #2: Compliance
Energy companies are navigating a complex web of regulations and standards. Maintaining compliance while ensuring the security and resilience of their network infrastructure is not an easy task. With the rise of smart devices, even the smallest of assets are now online and driving new requirements for internal cyber teams. Not only do major assets need to be secured, but these new smaller assets create the need for a broader defense strategy. Another evolving challenge is cyber audits. Given the size and location of energy assets, it’s not uncommon for an audit to be a very manual process.
Solution: OT-SDN
A cost-effective and simple solution is required by energy companies. OT-SDN can be deployed quickly across hundreds of assets. OT-SDN also supports NERC-CIP, NIST CSF, IEC62443 for requirements such as establishing an electronic safety perimeter, implementing zones and conduits, managing ports and services, and supporting configuration and change management requirements by helping bring asset owners into compliance with industry standards.
Challenge #3: Shared Networks
Given the expertise required to deploy, maintain, and manage the complexity of OT networks today, it’s not uncommon to provide 3rd parties access to your network. Obtaining real-time information about who is on the network, what they can see and do, and how the OT team can manage those complexities is not always at your fingertips. There are many benefits to granting this access, however maintaining control can be a challenge for energy companies.
Solution: Network Control
By implementing OT-SDN, managing shared networks can be done in an efficient way. The Veracity approach is more cost-effective and easier to manage when compared to tools like access management systems and/or identity management systems. OT-SDN is rule-based and presented in a format that is understood by controls engineers. Using familiar terms, devices, and a straightforward rules engine greatly reduces the risk of human error by both new and experienced engineers. Traditional networking challenges and complexities are also eliminated because the OT-SDN network controller centrally manages and micro-segments network communications.
The energy industry is continuing to look for new ways to address the growing challenges of cybersecurity. Staying ahead of vulnerabilities and uncovering new strategies to safeguard their operations and ensure the uninterrupted supply of essential services has never been more important. OT-SDN is paving the way for energy companies to protect their critical assets and systems.
To learn how the Veracity OT Network Management Platform benefits OT teams, visit veracity.io/product.
