Worldwide, cyber threat specialists are seeing an increase in cyber warfare-related malware. While attacks by cybercriminals are always conducted with the goal of extorting as much money as possible, malware used in cyber warfare is more often totally focused on causing as much disruption as possible. Here are four OT zero trust strategies to secure your operation against the increasingly virulent and malicious threats we’ve seen so far in 2022.
1.Inspect all inbound devices
Scan every asset that comes onto your work site, be it an asset arriving for onboarding or brought on-site by a trusted employee. Supply chain attacks can be hidden in assets before they even leave the manufacturer, and malware is often hiding in personnel-owned devices such as laptops and USBs – checkpoint scans for inbound assets solve both of these problems.
2.Lock down assets and trust no one
In the recent WhisperGate and HermeticWiper attacks, bad actors demanded a ransom even though they were also deploying malware designed to permanently destroy data without any chance of recovery. Prepare for this by installing trust lists on every endpoint that block all unapproved applications and scripts.
3.Shield vulnerabilities
Virtually patch legacy assets at a network level to secure vulnerabilities without any interruption to productivity. Unpatchable legacy assets can operate like this long-term, while assets that are still patchable can use virtual patching as a stopgap measure until busy work schedules allow for maintenance.
4.Segment the network into productivity-based zones
Segment the network to make it more defensible, grant easier oversight, and create challenges to hackers trying to gather information or travel within your environment (lateral movement). Group assets together into segments based on productivity and then customize segment policy to accommodate each asset’s specialized needs.
