Securing OT, Remote Access, and Converged SOC Operations

New Strategies for Industrial CIOs and CISOs

Digital transformation (DX) is propelling organizations forward and accelerating the convergence of operational technology (OT) with information technology (IT). Note for the purposes of this paper that OT is synonymous with industrial control systems (ICS). OT-ICS environments perform supervisory management of cyber-physical processes in a production environment. They are composed of a variety of different kinds of software and hardware, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and human-machine interfaces (HMI).

Previously air-gapped OT environments are now increasingly connected due to DX initiatives and the growing need for highly skilled technicians to support dispersed industrial assets remotely. The fundamental assumption—a discrete OT disconnected from the rest of the enterprise network—is now undermined by this increased connectivity. New solutions are required to connect the networks that operate industrial assets securely. The Fortinet Security Fabric provides a broad, integrated, and automated defense-in-depth suite of solutions. It is engineered to address the unique requirements of both IT and OT environments.

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