OT Network Security: How to Navigate Emerging Threat Landscapes
Summary: Dragos describes OT environments in electric, oil and gas, and manufacturing as increasingly exposed to malware, ransomware, and nation-state attacks, with adversaries continuously evolving their tactics. The blog argues that OT networks of PLCs, SCADA systems, and HMIs run on proprietary protocols that traditional IT tools cannot parse, and that patching is often infeasible because maintenance windows may be scheduled months in advance.
Key Takeaway: In OT, the usual IT answer of patching on discovery does not apply: shutting a system down for updates can halt production and cause significant financial losses, so teams are pushed toward segmentation, multi-factor authentication, and monitoring instead. The visibility gap is the stake - IT tools cannot read the proprietary protocols on these networks, so many assets go unseen until an adversary is already acting.
Read the original at Dragos Blog ↗
- Topics
- OT / ICS & Critical Infrastructure
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