In operational environments, availability and security must go together.
Industrial systems, building automation, medical equipment and IoT devices have life cycles, protocols and constraints different from traditional IT. Unplanned testing or changes can create physical and operational impacts; for this reason the analysis always starts from understanding the process and safety conditions.
Areas of evaluation
- passive inventory and asset classification;
- architecture, zones, conduits and IT/OT segmentation;
- remote access for maintainers and suppliers;
- shared accounts, privileges and authentication;
- firmware, known vulnerabilities and workarounds;
- industrial protocols and unnecessary communications;
- configuration backup and restore procedures;
- logging, anomaly detection and OT incident management.
Cautious approach
Intrusive activities are prevented or limited to authorized windows and environments. When a patch cannot be applied, compensating controls such as segmentation, allowlisting, monitoring, access restriction or planned replacement are evaluated.
Output
The customer receives a dependency map, an exposure log, risk scenarios and a maintenance and production compatible roadmap. The work involves OT, IT, safety, maintenance and supplier managers, because effective defense requires shared responsibilities.