Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
Your local supermarket is an OT environment.
And your food just got hacked.
Attackers forced food freezers into defrost mode.
At nearly 100 grocery stores at once.
-> Ruined food.
-> Heavy food losses.
-> Setting small fires.
-> Causing chaos and confusion.
Attacks against OT and ICS environments are increasing.
Not only in number, but in impact.
Before, a single store might have been hit.
Now it’s almost 100 at once.
Think of how this might impact other areas.
-> 100 power plants
-> 100 subway trains
-> 100 desalination plants
-> 100 electric substations
-> 100 manufacturing sites
-> 100 food processing plants
-> 100 water treatment facilities
This list can go on forever.
It impacts so much more.
Ultimately, it impacts our families, friends, and communities.
If you’re responsible for an environment like this, start here:
-> List out each controller you have and its firmware version
-> Determine if they can be reached from the Internet
-> Look to see if there are any known vulnerabilities on the controllers
-> Update the firmware as necessary
-> Change default credentials
-> Remember updates aren’t everything – keep access limited
-> Set up out-of-band alerting systems to tell you if your temperature is too high
Protecting OT from cyber attacks doesn’t have to be complicated.
But we still have to put in the work and close our security gaps.
Before the attackers find them.
And take advantage of them.
Even inside our grocery stores.
