Manufacturing was the second most attacked industry, up from eighth in 2019.
With the rise of Industry 4.0, many manufacturing environments, like yours, are more digitally interconnected. Hence, the dependencies between OT systems - one system failure could accidentally take down an entire production line. Just one hour of downtime for an automotive manufacturer can range in cost from $600,000 to $700,0002. This makes manufacturing vulnerable and attractive targets for cybercriminals.
Recent news puts manufacturers in the heat of the cybersecurity debates again. As a result, it is time to re-evaluate your OT management approach.
So… where to start?
“You cannot protect what you don’t know.” While the sentence is overused, the message still holds the truth.
The OT environment continues to grow in its complexity; it’s challenging to gain a complete picture of operational technology - let alone efficiently secure, monitor, and manage it all. As you are rethinking your end-to-end OT management approach, here are a few tips you should consider:
Build a single, integrated data foundation
Many organizations are battling legacy and siloed systems. Bringing your OT assets information into a solid data foundation is critical to eliminate data silos and maximize systems uptime. ServiceNow Operational Technology Management (OTM) allows you to discover OT assets through industrial security integrations and IT assets through discovery engines on OT networks. By aggregating data from various sources into multisource Configuration Management Database (CMDB), including OT assets data from spreadsheets using Service Graph for Microsoft Excel and from OT Security Providers using OT Certified Service Graph Connectors, it creates a single, integrated view of the IT and OT estate in one unified place.
We are excited to expand partnership with one of the industry-leading industrial controls systems/OT security providers, Dragos, to enable joint customers to increase visibility and efficiency through ServiceNow OT Certified Service Graph Connector. Watch this panel discussion to hear from Dragos, Deloitte, ServiceNow, Georgia – Pacific, and Sub Zero CISOs for best practices to digitally transform manufacturing operations securely in today’s hyperconnected world.
We are also thrilled to partner with Deloitte as a sponsor of the Smart Factory @ Wichita. When the Smart Factory is ready later this year, customers will be able to experience end-to-end transformations that come to life through a mix of hands-on and virtual tools.
The list of integrators and partnerships will continue to expand.
Align OT data within the database
Building a solid data foundation into one CMDB is essential for visibility. Still, it is also vital to build logical representations of assets and the relationships that comprise their infrastructure. ServiceNow OTM leverages the industry-standard framework, ISA-95, to expand the common service data model (CSDM) and specify OT asset criticality and process mapping in manufacturing environments. In addition, it leverages the Purdue model reference architecture, which defines the segmentation of critical infrastructure used in production lines. With these guidelines, all the data elements are appropriately handled within CSDM and table structures and create one single source of truth. Read our technical whitepaper to learn more.
Develop a comprehensive, contextual view of the OT environment
In today’s digitally interconnected OT environment, you need to know precisely your OT devices and have good accountability for them. To meet this requirement, you need to understand where these OT assets are, how they are configured, and the dependency and business criticality of an asset. Simply put, if the asset goes down, what systems get affected?
ServiceNow OTM gives you the ability to capture more dynamic information about OT devices in your environment – including systems interconnectivity, data on updates/ upgrades, and a ranking of operational criticality – and store it all in a secure cloud environment that is visible and accessible from anywhere.
With an end-to-end view in place, you can see a visual map of all the dependencies related to each device, giving you an instrumental tool to protect your operations from unplanned downtime.
Move beyond OT visibility, the path to a proactive and efficient OT management approach
Many manufacturers are often still dependent on manual processes and legacy knowledge to maintain their critical Operational Technology (OT) environment. Unfortunately, this manual, reactive OT management method is prone to errors and delays. In addition, as the number of endpoints and monitoring tools grows, it is challenging for your team to view threats, vulnerabilities, and updates and prioritize appropriate actions thoroughly while toggling between different systems.
ServiceNow OTM works across your existing systems and ecosystem of partners to create a single view of related vulnerability data on the discovered OT assets. By offering a complete picture of your entire OT ecosystem, you can assess, prioritize, and act fast based on urgency and business impacts using a calculated risk score on the Now Platform. Then, connect your operational technology to production processes with digital workflows to rapidly respond and recover from any incident or change. ServiceNow serves as a single system of action. It automatically assigns and routes details into the right hand, such as real-time alerts, level of importance, and how to resolve. And every step is automatically recorded, creating a transparent trail for compliance purposes.
ServiceNow OTM is purpose-built to help you safeguard and manage all your OT systems across your manufacturing operations.
Want to learn more about ServiceNow Operational Technology Management?
Our OT and ICS security experts and manufacturing experts will be at the S4 x 22 event in Miami, Florida, on January 25 – 27. See you there!
