Industrial Control Use Case

I formulated this solution with AT&T USM Anywhere as the foundational Cloud-Based SIEM, although it’s versatile enough to accommodate almost any equivalent service. The primary goal of this USE CASE is to demonstrate how contemporary IT security technology can be effectively deployed to provide comprehensive security services across both IT and OT environments simultaneously.

For optimal functionality, I strongly recommend the abundant use of Next-Gen or UTM Firewalls to facilitate network segmentation and enhance interconnectivity security. Prioritizing security and employing interoperable, integrated security systems are paramount to achieving the highest level of enterprise security.

My design approach stems from extensive collaboration with various OT organizations, which primarily operate critical infrastructure such as water, sewerage, electricity, and manufacturing facilities. Notably, integrating OT and SCADA environments poses unique challenges, particularly due to the inherent caution among OT managers regarding internet exposure within these environments.

Key considerations for this solution include:

• Emphasizing physical and logical network segmentation to ensure privacy and security within OT/ICS/SCADA environments.
• Implementing robust encryption between firewall terminating interfaces to mitigate modern cybercrime threats effectively.
• Deploying best-of-breed firewall UTM or Next-Gen solutions to maintain security integrity across the platform. Look for platforms that support OT/IT/ICS/SCADA IOCs, which differ from standard Security IOCs.
• Ensuring active management and monitoring of firewalls or integrating them at the API level for automated or intelligent responses within the Cloud-Based SIEM platform. Timely responses to critical IOCs are imperative, as human speed may prove too sluggish in this context.