Eight Steps to Secure Industrial Enterprises

​Industrial sectors such as power and utilities, energy and chemicals, metals and mining and critical manufacturing are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats, in fact industrial enterprises experienced more incidents than any other, with a 25.7% share in 2024 according to the Kaspersky MDR team.

The importance of cyber resilience in these industries cannot be overstated, as cyberattacks can lead to operational disruptions, financial losses and compromised safety. Yet, according to the World Economic Forum only 19% of cyber leaders feel confident that their organizations are cyberresilient.

Those fears are rooted in the knowledge that threat levels are rising everywhere. Global analyst and advisory firm Omdia found that 80% of manufacturing firms experienced a notable increase in overall security incidents or breaches last year, but only 45% are adequately prepared in their cybersecurity.

Why cyber resilience matters

One of the most critical aspects of cyber resilience is maintaining business continuity. Cyberattacks have the potential to cripple operations, causing significant delays and financial setbacks. The effects of a cyberattack can be felt far and wide such as power outages, safety incidents and environmental emergencies. However, organizations that prioritize cyber resilience can quickly recover from incidents, minimizing downtime and ensuring essential functions remain operational. Proactive business continuity planning is key, as it enables companies to prepare for potential cyber threats and ensure that disruptions do not lead to prolonged or catastrophic consequences.

Another hugely important reason for greater cyber resilience is its role in protecting sensitive data and preserving an organization’s reputation. Industrial enterprises manage vast amounts of sensitive data, making them prime targets for cybercriminals. A successful attack can lead to data breaches, intellectual property theft and significant reputational damage. Additionally, many industries must comply with stringent data protection regulations, and so a comprehensive cyber resilience strategy helps organizations stay compliant and avoid costly legal consequences.

Industrial control systems are particularly vulnerable, as they form the backbone of essential industrial processes. Cyber resilience ensures these systems remain secure, reliable and functional even when faced with persistent threats. Additionally, as industrial enterprises increasingly integrate connected products and digital technologies, the need to protect these interconnected systems from cyberattacks becomes even more pressing.

Financial loss is arguably the greatest concern when it comes to cyber threats though. A single cyberattack can result in substantial financial repercussions, including direct losses from theft, recovery costs, regulatory fines and lost business opportunities. A well-structured cybersecurity strategy can lead to lower insurance premiums by demonstrating a proactive approach to cyber risk mitigation. Additionally, organizations that invest in cyber resilience are better equipped to optimize their operations, ensuring that productivity and efficiency are maintained even in the face of emerging cyber threats.

Kaspersky is on the front line, protecting more than 1,000 industrial customers and has extensive experience in helping industrial organizations in adopting international standards and best practices. Calling on this expertise, Kaspersky has defined the following eight strategic steps that apply universally to automation systems:

1. Inventory: Asset Management

Begin by building or updating your asset inventory. Account for systems, software, hardware, network segments, conduits, communication paths and devices to understand what must be secured. If you can’t monitor a part of your infrastructure – or aren’t even aware it exists and could be attacked – you can’t protect it. This comprehensive inventory ensures all valuable assets are secured.

2. Assess: Detailed Risk Assessment

Conduct a detailed risk assessment to understand the current risk level within your organization, considering potential threat vectors and existing or planned countermeasures. This assessment helps prioritize investments and prevent potentially catastrophic disruptions.

3. Secure: Essential Security

Implement essential security measures, such as endpoint protection, to safeguard operations. This involves creating security baselines aimed at maintaining and protecting operational OT system integrity while detecting, blocking and remediating cyber threats.

4. Detect: Threat and Anomaly Detection

Implement threat and anomaly detection to identify threats early and understand how attacks develop, enabling quick responses to avoid disruption and continually strengthen your security posture.

5. Audit: Security Audits and Compliance

Conduct regular security audits and focus on compliance to build a realistic picture of your organizational cybersecurity. These systematic evaluations ensure alignment with criteria and benchmarks, improving adherence to best practices and resulting in robust systems.

6. Enhance: Zones and Conduits

Enhance your network architecture by organizing and protecting it through zones and conduits. Zones group networks, devices and services based on function and criticality, while conduits represent communication paths that unite zones or connect them to external networks.

7. Monitor: Mature Security Operations

Develop a mature Security Operations Center (SOC) with proactive and contextual analysis capabilities to manage complex attacks. Continually evolve your SOC capability with threat intelligence and incident response features to swiftly investigate, contain and mitigate threats.

8. Prepare: Fault Tolerance and Readiness

Guarantee fault tolerance by stress-testing your infrastructure through exercises that simulate large-scale cyberattacks. This preparation ensures that your industrial control systems can withstand and recover from cyber incidents without compromising operational continuity. People are an organization’s greatest asset, but they also a point of potential vulnerability, employers should be trained on a regular basis.

In an era where cyber threats are ever-evolving, industrial enterprises must prioritize cyber resilience to safeguard their operations, data and reputation. They need to develop a culture in which cyber resilience is prioritized in key decisions made at the top. True security requires more than just a capable cybersecurity team. Leaders should actively engage with cybersecurity strategies, recognizing that it is a core business function just as vital as legal and financial issues.

Implementing the eight steps outlined above will help on the journey towards building a robust cybersecurity posture.​ As you progress through all the steps, your organization starts from basic industrial cyber resilience and in the end reaches an advanced level of cyber resilience that should be maintained regularly. This is not an end-result, but rather non-stop process.

For comprehensive protection, Kaspersky offers a distinctive ecosystem that seamlessly integrates dedicated OT-grade technologies, expert knowledge and invaluable expertise. At the core of this ecosystem is Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity (KICS), a native Extended Detection and Response (XDR) platform designed for critical infrastructure protection.

KICS provides robust network traffic analysis, detection and responsive actions, along with endpoint protection, detection and response capabilities. These comprehensive solutions integrate traditional IT security measures with purpose-built industrial security technologies, ensuring that your enterprise is well-equipped to face.

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