Operational Technology (OT)

"OT systems were designed for reliability and performance, not security. But as these systems become more connected, cybersecurity becomes a priority."

- Patrick Miller

OT environments provide our critical national infrastructure (CNI) functions such as power, water and industrial production, are increasingly being targeted by sophisticated attackers. After decades of neglect in terms of secure development and architecture, these critical systems have become a soft target.

OT penetration testing is the process of vulnerability identification in critical industrial system (ICS) processes and components to maintain safety, reliability, and operational continuity. Assessments can cover a wide range of different OT networks and devices from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) which control physical processors, through to the human interface devices (HIDs) used by plant operators.

Whilst Information Technology (IT) is different from OT, assessment of the latter often involves the former. IT networks are often linked to the OT network to provide data storage, logging and monitoring, but they are intended to segregated so that an attacker cannot move between the two. Assessments of OT environments will often also seek to ensure that these levels of what is known as the 'Purdue Model' are effectively segregated.

Assessments can include, but are not limited to:

Networks and components at varying levels of the Purdue model.

Specialised radio frequency (RF) assessments and reverse engineering of critical data transceivers.

Code review of firmware source code.

Resources

• What is operational technology?
• The Purdue Model