In a landscape increasingly threatened by cyber risks, Dragos has unveiled its 9th Annual OT Cybersecurity Year in Review. This comprehensive report chronicles emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and critical lessons from the past year, offering a vital resource for those involved in operational technology (OT).
"We cover new threats and provide insights that help organizations stay ahead of the curve in the OT cybersecurity arena," said a spokesperson from Dragos. This latest assessment emphasizes how imperative it is to evolve incident response protocols, especially in the face of new vulnerabilities.
"We cover new threats and provide insights that help organizations stay ahead of the curve in the OT cybersecurity arena,"
Central to Dragos's mission is improving the speed of OT incident response, effectively reducing mean time to resolution from hours to mere minutes. By implementing proven workflows tailored for industrial control systems (ICS), defenders are not only able to act faster but also maintain operational safety. "We create cases from alerts, correlate events in timeline views, and deploy expert ICS incident response playbooks, all designed to protect operations while neutralizing threats," said a Dragos representative.
"We create cases from alerts, correlate events in timeline views, and deploy expert ICS incident response playbooks, all designed to protect operations while neutralizing threats,"
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The challenge of alert overload is a well-recognized issue among OT security teams. Anomalous behavior often generates an overwhelming number of alerts that provide little actionable insight. "What we do at Dragos is turn that noise into clarity," said a cybersecurity analyst from the company. The platform offers high-confidence detections, clear workflows, and expert guidance which significantly enhances the speed and safety of incident resolution.
"What we do at Dragos is turn that noise into clarity,"
To this end, Dragos has introduced tools such as OT Watch for threat hunting, alongside response retainers that offer expert operational backup. The Neighborhood Keeper initiative allows for community insights sharing. "With native SIEM/SOAR integrations, our platform provides a full suite for OT incident response, combining platform analytics with rich intelligence and comprehensive services," an executive from Dragos explained.
"With native SIEM/SOAR integrations, our platform provides a full suite for OT incident response, combining platform analytics with rich intelligence and comprehensive services,"
Customer testimonials underline the effectiveness of Dragos solutions in transforming how organizations handle cybersecurity threats. "What’s been helpful with Dragos is not just the technology, but the expertise that they bring," remarked Gabe Green, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Koch Industries. He noted significant improvements in their ability to identify and understand ICS/OT threats, leading to a notable reduction in false positives.
"What’s been helpful with Dragos is not just the technology, but the expertise that they bring,"
Another CISO from a regional electric and water utility highlighted the initial focus on anomaly detection software. "We quickly realized that the majority of those solutions just weren’t as mature as we needed. This awareness led us to consider OT visibility platforms in general, and the conversation pretty much started and stopped with Dragos,” he recounted.
Additionally, a CISO from the oil and gas sector noted, "The visibility provided by the Dragos Platform, along with its automated monitoring capabilities, alerts the security team to potentially malicious behavior. This allows for rapid investigation and response—key to staying ahead of attackers."
A crucial aspect of Dragos's capability is the distinctiveness of its incident response approach for OT compared to traditional IT. "In OT, we face unique challenges where devices can't always be isolated or swiftly patched," remarked a Dragos expert. This is where the tailored playbooks and workflows specific to OT environments become invaluable.
"In OT, we face unique challenges where devices can't always be isolated or swiftly patched,"
For teams dealing with environments where patching isn't feasible due to safety or operational risk, Dragos offers alternative mitigations and investigation strategies. “We guide defenders to neutralize threats without causing disruptions to production processes,” a senior analyst from the company elaborated.
Furthermore, the Dragos Platform extends its support beyond just internal capabilities. Services such as OT Watch, incident response retainers, and Neighborhood Keeper are crucial for continuous monitoring, expert guidance, and collaborative insights into threats.
Lastly, the platform is designed with integration in mind, allowing for compatibility with existing security tools. "Our platform is compatible with leading SIEM, EDR, and security orchestration tools to enrich enterprise security workflows with contextualized OT data," asserted a Dragos representative.
"Our platform is compatible with leading SIEM, EDR, and security orchestration tools to enrich enterprise security workflows with contextualized OT data,"
The context of this ongoing evolution in OT incident response underscores the need for robust, tailored solutions. With continuous advancements and adaptability, Dragos is positioned as a leader in ensuring the safety and security of operational technologies in an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape.