
Today’s industries live at the intersection of our digital and physical worlds. The ever-expanding Internet of Things (IoT) brings tighter integration between your organization’s digital and physical assets.
Those connections also bring greater risks from attacks on cyber-physical systems (CPS) that include critical infrastructure and healthcare environments. Industries are turning to cyber-physical systems security offerings to prevent security breaches and safeguard business continuity.
Smart networked systems with embedded sensors and processors sense, control, and network into IoT devices found in automobiles, building automation systems, medical equipment, manufacturing robotics, and smart grids, to name a few. CPS connects those objects and their data to the Internet and manages their physical processes.
CPSs are systems engineered to orchestrate sensing, computation, control, networking, and analytics to interact with the physical world (including humans). They underpin all connected IT, operational technology (OT), and IoT efforts where security considerations span both the cyber and physical worlds.
Cyber-physical systems bring together the capabilities and risks of both IT and OT.
As cyber-physical systems expand in number and size, attack surfaces increase and bad actors have more opportunity to wreak havoc. A breach in OT can lead to physical consequences, safety risks, disrupted operations, and financial losses. These risks span a variety of industries, for example:
Regardless of industry, top security-related risks of cyber-physical systems range from financial repercussions and reduced product quality to equipment damage and operational shutdowns.
In addition to the security concerns above, critical infrastructure sectors such as healthcare, food and agriculture, transportation systems, energy, and utilities have to address increasing regulatory compliance requirements for their cyber-physical systems.
Several vendors have developed CPS protection platforms to secure interconnected systems and ensure critical infrastructures, control systems, and essential processes remain reliable.
Such CPS security measures can mitigate the potential impact of cyber-physical threats on operational technology such as:
CPS protection platform vendors recognize the inherent differences between CPS and enterprise IT systems. CPS assets tend to have longer lifecycles and 24/7 uptime – any downtime can cause significant losses. While the latest security patching is desirable in IT cybersecurity, security patching in CPS can be unwanted or too complex to even be possible.
Where do you start with CPS security? Discovery is the first step, with some key questions to ask about your organization:
Audits and assessments can help answer these questions and provide next steps.
Questions? Contact us at Sayers today for help in securing your organization’s cyber-physical systems.