Is a Cybersecurity Assessment for You?
Unfortunately, we live in a digital world where manufacturing plants are often targeted by cyber-attacks. This can cause devastating results for the manufacturing and operational technology environments. Having a better understanding of what controls and gaps your environment has or is missing can help in the decision-making process. One way a plant can better gauge cybersecurity posture is by conducting a cybersecurity assessment.
If a plant has the personnel, resources, and cybersecurity knowledge, an internal assessment can be highly effective. For those who don’t, an independent external cybersecurity assessment is a great option. Opting for an external cybersecurity assessment can provide a fresh and unbiased perspective of how the plant is performing. Choosing a company to perform a cybersecurity assessment can be challenging as there is no shortage of options. However, there are a few factors to consider before you make a decision.
Choosing a Company to Perform a Cybersecurity Assessment
Companies who have been performing cybersecurity assessments for years are typically staffed with cybersecurity experts. However, many of those assessors are IT cybersecurity professionals. This means the assessment will be an IT-focused assessment. For a cybersecurity assessment in a plant or manufacturing environment, it is beneficial for the auditors or assessors to have a thorough understanding of the intricacies of technology systems in a manufacturing environment, as it differs from a typical IT environment. When the assessor is equipped with this knowledge, you will receive better and more targeted assessment results related to the operational technology within your environment.
Many organizations already have a way of performing a cybersecurity assessment. For example, they may check against controls they have defined as best practices. This is acceptable if your plant is unaware of or does not have standards to be assessed against. If your plant wants to become more cyber-conscious, you may already have a framework or set of cybersecurity policies that would provide more value when verifying the compliance of your framework or policies. If this is true for your plant, ensure the assessing organization can scope the assessment and verify the cybersecurity controls and culture your plant is looking to achieve.
Our Cybersecurity Assessments
At Interstates, our focus is solely on technology within the manufacturing controls environment. Our cybersecurity experts work with systems and solutions from a variety of automation manufacturers to provide an in-depth knowledge of cybersecurity in the IT and the OT worlds while understanding the similarities and differences between the two. Our assessors will work with you to tailor the scope of the assessment to your plant, create a unique findings and recommendations report, and work with your plant to fully understand the strengths and weakness identified during the assessment. Interstates is dedicated to helping the manufacturing controls environment become more secure through user understanding, organizational and system processes, and technical controls. Performing a cybersecurity assessment on your manufacturing control system environment will allow you to address potential threats before they become realized attacks and affect production availability.
Interested in learning more about our cybersecurity service offerings? Click here to email one of our experts.
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Brandon Bohle, Interstates Systems Analyst
