A higher cyber threat level: How secure is your OT environment?
On September 24, the Danish Resilience Agency (SAMSIK) raised the threat level for destructive cyberattacks against Denmark from MEDIUM to HIGH.
The assessment highlights the risk of attacks that could involve the manipulation of Operational Technology (OT) and potentially impact critical societal functions.
For organisations operating or depending on critical infrastructure, this is a good opportunity to take a closer look at a simple question:
Do you know what is actually happening in your OT environment?
Do you know what is connected to your network? Where are your vulnerabilities? And can you demonstrate that your security measures work as intended?
Start with visibility
SAMSIK's guide to protecting OT highlights important measures such as secure remote access, network segmentation, system updates and incident response.
But before you can protect an OT environment effectively, you need to understand what is actually there.
Documentation and asset inventories do not always reflect the current state of an OT environment. Devices may have been added over time, connections may have changed, and actual network communication may differ from the intended architecture.
This is where passive network analysis can provide an important starting point.
See what is really happening on your OT network
Passive network analysis provides insight into devices, communication patterns, protocols and network behaviour without actively scanning or interfering with production equipment.
It can reveal devices that are missing from asset inventories, unexpected communication and connections that may require further investigation.
At ICSRange, we use passive network analysis to help organisations build a more accurate picture of their OT environment. The result is a factual basis for deciding where further security work should focus — without putting live operations at unnecessary risk.
From visibility to action
Having visibility is only the beginning.
Once the environment is understood, organisations can focus their efforts on the systems, devices and connections that matter most.
OT Security Assessments, Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Management can help identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, exposed services and other weaknesses.
For industrial devices, the ICSRange OT Test Platform can be used to validate whether devices and configurations match the expected setup and identify deviations before deployment or as part of ongoing validation.
This helps turn observations into something that can actually be acted upon: What needs attention? What should be tested? And where can changes be made without unnecessarily affecting production?
OT security needs to work in the real world
In OT environments, security cannot be separated from operations.
Security measures have to work alongside production requirements, availability, maintenance and the realities of industrial systems.
That is why we combine technical cybersecurity expertise with practical OT experience. At ICSRange, we help organisations understand their environment, identify the risks that matter and validate whether their security measures work as intended. Our services include OT security assessments, vulnerability management, risk assessments, passive network analysis, security architecture and testing of industrial devices.
The first step is knowing what you have. The next is knowing what needs attention.
If you have questions about your OT security or would like to discuss how to gain better visibility into your environment, feel free to reach out to us.
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