Leading Questions Concerning Cybersecurity in an Industrial Environment
“How, when, and where do I start with cybersecurity in my industrial environment?” are the three most often asked questions when discussing cybersecurity needs with our customers. In response to these questions, we offer solutions and timelines that align with their needs and goals.
Likewise, we sometimes receive a fourth question of “why?” from customers. My answer to “Why does our industrial environment need cybersecurity?” may surprise you.
Know Your Enemy
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War famously states that “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” In digital warfare, we often recite this as “know your enemy, know your environment, and know your capabilities.” Thus, one part of “why?” is to know your enemy.
Rapidly evolving security challenges to industries and critical infrastructure are the other part of “why?”. Industry 4.0 and digital transformation enable operational and production gains but also invite added production and cyber risk to a connected industrial network.
Once you know your enemy and your security challenges, refine the broad “why” question into more tactical security questions:
Do you know what you’re defending against?
Do you know your environment and how valuable it is?
What would you do the day everything changes?
If you can answer any one of these questions, you are likely already engaged in some type of network security strategy.
Throughout my career in industrial cybersecurity, I’ve been guiding customers across industries through cybersecurity trials; be it helping a mining company to understand that they are under attack or in a data center of a major metropolitan city locating and responding to malware on a system that could impact the lives of millions of people. Since we knew our enemies and challenges, our environments, and our capabilities, we were successful in these scenarios. Because of knowing the answer to “why?” these organizations were able to return to business as usual without incurring a devastating disruption.
Now that you know the answer to “why?”, I want to introduce you to a powerful tool in your cybersecurity toolkit.
Get to Know the Next-Generation Firewall
More than ever, production environments are demanding more data and more capabilities to make informed decisions about the business. As you adopt Industry 4.0 and digital transformation, protection of your industrial environments can start with a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW). Security features like protocol-based application control, network segmentation via zones and conduits, secure remote access, and even offloading applications to cloud environments are all made possible with an NGFW like Fortinet’s FortiGate. Additionally, the FortiGate NGFW provides industry-leading threat protection. The FortiGate enables IT/OT convergence that can scale to any location, delivering security performance and threat intelligence, even in harsh environments as a ruggedized NGFW. In fact, FortiGate is the world’s most deployed network firewall.
Within the Rockwall Automation environment, FortiGate can provide the power to control applications as well as user and third-party vendor access with two factor authentication. FortiGate can offer a pathway to refresh how we use virtual private networks (VPNs) by taking advantage of security protocols that offer convenience and reliability with built-in state-of-the-art security and encryption.
Know Your Ally
Founded more than 20 years ago in Sunnyvale, California, Fortinet continues to be a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Securing people, devices, and data everywhere is our mission. To that end, our portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade and OT-built products is the largest integrated offering available, delivering proven cybersecurity everywhere you need it. More than 660,000 customers trust Fortinet solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry.
In the words of Sun Tzu, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.” The FortiGate NGFW with built-in cybersecurity has the ability to help deliver network security, enhance reliability, reduce downtime, and improve production and output. I invite you to learn about Fortinet on the Rockwell Automation Partner Locator and discover FortiGate, our Next-Generation Firewall.
