Without proper security, threat actors can breach the system with the potential of locking up controllers for ransom, controlling the physical actions of machines, altering recipe data, and even creating worker safety hazards.
Automotive manufacturers require a current and up-to-date understanding of all installed-base assets with visibility to known or unknown vulnerabilities. A thorough risk assessment methodology within their OT environments will help understand and mitigate security vulnerabilities associated with increased data flow.
This risk assessment can flag poor practices such as a lack of incident detection capabilities in industrial demilitarized zones (IDMZs), communication protocol risks or unsecured or unauthorized IIoT devices.
2. Poor Patch Management
Weak patch management of the installed base is hugely problematic. According to cyber risk assessment company Black Kite, 71% of automotive companies score poorly on patch management.
From plant-floor PCs to programmable logic controllers (PLCs), devices running outdated versions of operating systems or software are highly susceptible to cyberattacks. Patches often address critical software security vulnerabilities. Not applying them on time carries high risk, making it relatively trivial for malicious actors to exploit outdated versions with known security flaws.
While poor patch management poses automotive cybersecurity risks, it’s also understandable in the context of production-critical plant-floor devices. In the IT world, it’s straightforward to establish a patching routine for servers and workstations, resulting in minimal business disruption.
On plant floors, patching means the potential for downtime on production machines that keep things ticking, and those responsible for OT environments are understandably opposed to any level of downtime. Risk increases when production environments operate with physical servers and haven't yet been migrated to virtual compute infrastructures with 24x7 monitoring and administration of OT data centers.
Addressing OT patch management calls for a structured strategy with a minimal production disruption footprint. Asset inventory is critical to provide an overview of every plant floor device, the software versions running on them, and their unpatched vulnerabilities. Also useful is a cybersecurity advisor experienced in production operations to avoid common pitfalls and help balance effective security with production uptime.
3. OT Security Knowledge Gaps
OT security knowledge gaps are another source of vulnerabilities, because you can’t protect what you don’t know.
For example, start-ups in the electric vehicle space might cover all the bases for IT cybersecurity to an extremely high degree, yet neglect OT vulnerabilities. Viruses, worms and weaknesses at the automation level may propagate through the network and pose threats to equipment. The most infamous example is Stuxnet, which targeted PLCs via Windows exploits.
Increasing OT security starts with tested and validated reference architectures such as Converged Plantwide Ethernet (CPwE), which provides a solid foundation for securing automotive plants. Assistance from experts in such architectures can help deploy firewalls and establish IDMZs to bolster plant-floor security.
Additionally, adopting cybersecurity solutions aligned with the five pillars of the NIST framework — identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover — can greatly mature both IT and OT cybersecurity.
