cyber trends
We have the visibility to identify
vulnerabilities and detect the attacks
and then there’s other devices such as a
Fortinet firewall for instance or Palo Alto
firewall or network access control system
that is able to go in and take the action.
What advice would you offer
to CISOs that would like to
implement this technology or
look for an OT security solution?
I think the first step is to go and speak to
the operators to involve them very early
on and make sure you build that rapport.
Having an IT cybersecurity discussion
in your own circles without involving the
operational team can be a big pitfall.
Try to find other benefits so you’re not
just putting in cybersecurity controls
for the sake of it, you’re able to help the
operations team with efficiencies too.
Fortinet, for instance, can do mitigation,
Schneider owns the complete solution
stack inside a big refinery or a big oil
company or utility company so they
already understand the infrastructure
and can be a good translator between
the two worlds.
If you come from IT then you would
struggle to understand OT. If from OT
you would struggle to understand the
There are so many OT
networks in the world
but you just need to
decide which ones to
focus on.
There are so many OT networks in
the world but you just need to
decide which ones to focus
on. I read in a report that
there are 10 times as
many OT networks as
IT networks in the world,
which makes sense.
But the question is which are
the ones that are critical? I think
that is another thing that customers
are starting to wake up to. They’re
discovering that they have this OT
infrastructure that they have never
thought about from a cybersecurity
perspective, but these are actually
what keeps the business running. And
then suddenly what’s traditionally OT
as in industrial control systems
suddenly becomes IIoT, and even IoT
devices – which you’d typically find in
an IT environment.
These things are merging so we’re
seeing customers coming to us and
saying ‘can you help us with CCTV
systems for instance? Can you help us
with the metering systems?’ Things that
we would traditionally not look at.
We will be looking at substations,
refineries, pipelines and customers will
say ‘I also have other networks that are
critical to me. They are very adjacent to
what you do, can you help us with that?’
How important are security
partnerships for these kinds
of technologies?
We are an extremely partner driven
company. We are a small company by
comparison to the likes of Schneider
Electric for example.
One aspect of our partnerships is that
they lend us a lot of credibility. But we’ll
also know things that they don’t and vice
versa so we really complete each other
from a technical perspective. And it’s
also about keeping the focus on OT.
One of the key takeaways from running
a Security Operations Centre for OT is
that nothing speaks to each other. So
the ability for us to do what we do and
then go in and say we can do detection,
www.intelligentciso.com
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cyber piece. Any way that we can bridge
that gap is very useful.
Are there any emerging trends in
this area that CISOs should
be planning for?
And that is something that we’re getting
increased requests about. And I think
that’s going to keep changing over the
next few years. u
One of the trends that I would focus
on is how it’s not only about oil and
gas and utilities anymore. We see
aviation, transportation, pharma, building
management for instance, all impacted
by this convergence.
To give an example, if you think about
building management systems, if the air
conditioning stops working at a trade
show for example it’s not the end of the
world. But if we go to an airport or the
Burj Khalifa or Mall of the Emirates, for
example, the stakes are much higher.
Marcus Josefsson, Director – Middle East,
Africa and Russia at Nozomi Networks
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