Cybersecurity

In case you haven’t seen it yet, Dragos published its 2020 ICS Cybersecurity Year in Review yesterday. This years' report has some cool interactive elements displayed as an executive summary. Based on extensive experience, assessments, and incident response insights, Dragos shares its observations, lessons learned, and recommendations in this annual data-driven analysis of Industrial Control System (ICS)/Operational Technology (OT) focused cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

In addition to several key findings and recommendations for ICS defenders, read the report for more on:

As the country continues discussing the cyber incident which occurred at the Oldsmar Florida Water Treatment Plant on February 5, 2021, it is important to continue highlighting the need for information sharing across the sector. Michael Mimoso, Aperture’s host and Claroty Editorial Director invited Water ISAC Managing Director Michael Arceneaux and Cyber Threat Analyst Jennifer Lyn Walker to discuss the incident, how it underscores the need for better information-sharing about incidents, and improved security hygiene inside critical infrastructure sectors such as water and wastewater.

All eyes are on the Oldsmar, Florida Water Treatment Plant incident at the moment, and not just the security community’s.

In the interest of incident reporting it is important to be able to identify and differentiate types of incidents being reported. It is also important to be able to understand the difference between an actual attack and an unintentional incident that may have attack-like consequences. Given cross-sector dependencies, some water and wastewater utilities closely track and apply NERC CIP regulations even though they aren’t required. NERC CIP 008-6 became mandatory on January 1, 2021 and requires bulk power system utilities to report attempts to compromise their infrastructure and operations.