With Cybersecurity Month just behind us, many organizations are thinking more extensively about whether their security measures are resilient enough to deter rising security threats or if they have any security measures at all.
One thing is for sure: organizations can no longer ignore the constantly evolving threat landscape. Threats are becoming more sophisticated, causing more significant damage, and are occurring more frequently, especially with many organizations having inadequate security measures.
Precedents prove that cybersecurity attacks can cause crippling disruptions and significant financial damages, not to mention putting an organization’s reputation, operations, personnel, and the public at risk.
There are many applications and environments where shutting off or interrupting operations is simply not an option. Think about medical applications and facilities that rely on connected equipment to save lives, or gas and electricity plants that power cities and vital applications. Even in manufacturing, interrupting the production of certain elements and materials can cause them to spoil or solidify in the machines, causing extensive and expensive damage, like in the cases of glass production or pharmaceutical manufacturing. These are just some examples of what can go wrong if cybercriminals successfully attack your network or even just a single device. According to McKinsey, in 2021, approximately 90 percent of manufacturing organizations had their production or energy supply hit by cyberattacks. Of 64 OT cyberattacks publicly reported in 2021 (an increase of 140 percent over the number reported in 2020), approximately 35 percent had physical consequences, and the estimated damages were $140 million per incident.
Organizations cannot afford not to protect their networks and single devices against cybersecurity threats; even the legacy devices and machinery that are not connected to a network are at risk. If a piece of equipment has a USB port, it is at risk, and it needs to be protected.
Helping ensure a robust defense against cyberattacks in these environments requires security measures to be closer to the device. In manufacturing, this means ensuring security is present on the factory floor and not just at a network level. One of the challenges for organizations is that they often have a mix of legacy devices and machinery working alongside newer technology in the same environment and possibly some level of network security, but not necessarily at the machine level.
Embedded solutions have traditionally filled the gap. Inbuilt device security in application-specific computing is designed to provide an initial layer of protection directly on a single piece of equipment. Embedded security is still relevant in OT environments, even as it takes on a new function. Embedded devices are commonly now used as sensors that provide important telemetry information to a more sophisticated security ecosystem known as XDR (extended detection and response).
With today’s dynamic threat landscape continually evolving, security measures and readiness plans are vital. However, there is now a crucial need to monitor and predict threats and weaknesses actively. Moving to a proactive monitoring and threat prediction model allows organizations to act on data and devise timely response plans based on telemetry data rather than continue working with a purely reactive strategy model. That is where XDR comes in. This approach to security allows organizations to use software to hunt for threats, taking a detection and response approach to identifying potential weaknesses and taking action before becoming a potential target.
Arrow Electronics, together with Trellix, offers a robust AI-powered XDR solution that performs monitoring and detection at the machine level, gathering telemetry to detect patterns and potential risks to take preventive measures as and where necessary. The platform correlates and consolidates data from various sources to provide enhanced context and more efficient threat detection.
This intelligent solution is designed to replace multiple siloed tools and consolidate security defense into a single enterprise platform to help organizations defend themselves against security threats. It monitors all threat fronts, including network, endpoint, email, and any endpoint that potential attackers could gain access to an organization. The data is then correlated to provide better and more informed detection and response action. The platform ingests and deciphers all the gathered data and uses AI to enhance its detection capabilities.
To learn more about the Arrow and Trellix XDR solutions, register for our webcast or contact us.
