Solution to secure critical infrastructure

19th June 2018

Tenable

Alex Lynn

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A solution designed to reduce cyber security risk across today’s converged IT/OT environments has been announced by Tenable. Enhancements to the Tenable.io platform, an asset discovery and vulnerability detection solution for Operational Technology (OT) systems, delivered in partnership with Siemens, enables organisations to manage cyber exposure across IT and OT and effectively prioritise remediation based on the criticality of the asset and the vulnerability.

OT and critical infrastructure systems were initially designed to work in isolation from the network and walled off from outside cyber security threats. But digital transformation has turned these once-isolated systems into connected devices, making them high value targets for attackers. Attacks on OT assets often start by compromising IT systems and then moving laterally. Converged environments contain a mix of IT and OT devices and systems that demand a holistic approach to cyber security so that organisations can accurately manage, measure and reduce cyber security risk.

Enhancements include:

Smart Scanning: Smart scanning builds an intelligence layer on top of active scanning and passive network monitoring to assess IT and OT systems within a single workflow. In certain situations, active scanning may be too intrusive for sensitive OT systems and can cause system disruption if performed on these devices. Smart Scanning will stop actively scanning IT assets when it identifies them as OT devices.
Expanded OT Asset Coverage: Expanded support includes over 250 additional devices and applications from Siemens, Schneider and Rockwell/Allen-Bradley, providing customers with broader visibility across their OT assets and mixed IT/OT technology environments.
Interactive Topology Maps: New 2D and 3D topology maps display the relationships between IT and OT assets as part of a converged system. This new level of IT and OT asset intelligence aims to provide customers with a risk-based heat map of the criticality of the asset and the vulnerability, enabling more efficient prioritisation.

Dave Cole, Chief Product Officer at Tenable, stated: “The security challenges facing organisations with operational technologies cannot be overstated. IT and OT assets individually, and together as converged systems, comprise part of the modern attack surface, and are therefore points of cyber security risk. Organisations that approach understanding their state of security by neglecting to view OT assets as part of the attack surface lack critical visibility required to understand their cyber exposure. With Tenable.io, including our Industrial Security offering purpose-built for OT Security, Tenable is uniquely breaking down silos, providing a unified view of cyber exposure across converged IT/OT environments.”