Events , Governance & Risk Management , Operational Technology (OT)

Securing IT/OT Systems for Critical Infrastructure

Critical infrastructure organizations are faced with three big challenges, said Benny Czarny, founder and CEO of OPSWAT. Many infrastructures have both OT and IT systems, making data and device transfer between the two systems difficult. Also, some OT devices are outdated while IT systems use modern cloud devices, making it challenging to manage the complexities of the network. And the shortage of training is another hurdle.

See Also: Frost Radar™ on Healthcare IoT Security in the United States

To address these challenges, Czarny called for additional compliance mandates in 2023. Following similar mandates in Australia and Japan, he said the U.S. should mandate Deep Content Disarm and Reconstruction, or Deep CDR. He also noted the significance of training on critical infrastructure to pave the way for practitioners in the field.

"Put yourself in the seat of a CISO in charge of protecting the critical infrastructure - that can be a water plant, a nuclear facility or a government agency. You have a workforce of various folks and they need to be trained to understand what are the risks, what is an air-gapped network, some terminologies, technologies, compliance mandates that are very specific to this critical infrastructure," he said.

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSA Conference 2023, Czarny also discussed:

• The biggest cyber challenges small critical infrastructure providers face;
• How critical infrastructure providers protect vital assets from AI-based threats;
• How a lack of training and technology makes securing OT environments tough.

Czarny has more than 25 years of experience in successfully identifying market needs and building innovative cloud-based security products and solutions. Prior to founding OPSWAT, he held technical leadership positions at NetManage, Netect and BindView.