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In this post, we explain the unique structure and context of a modern IT/OT DMZ, and why a traditional IT DMZ model doesn’t cut muster for secure integration with ICS networks.

03 October, 2019

Lyndon Hall is routinely called on for the first-ever security assessment at industrial sites. On this episode of the Industrial Security Podcast, he explains how he does that and what he finds

11 August, 2019

Threats to operations control systems are no longer theoretical. With manufacturing control networks connectivity steadily increasing, a unidirectional IIoT architecture reflects a robust and trustworthy way of achieving the increased efficiencies and other business benefits of the IIoT’s central.

30 July, 2019

Watch Waterfall Security’s video for a brief explanation on how to achieve safe IT/OT integration and 100% protection from remote cyber threats with Unidirectional Security Gateways. Protect your industrial and OT network perimeter from remote cyber threats using the strongest cyber protection ava

15 July, 2019

A wide-ranging conversation with Greg Hale, Editor and Founder of Industrial Safety and Security Source (ISSSource), about where we are today, how security relates to safety, how to sell security as improving efficiency and other topics.

15 July, 2019

The essence of today’s OT security problem is that the data-centric, IT-class protections are simply not enough for operational security and control system security needs. A cyber breach to physical processes and powerful tools can have disastrous consequences. Preventing misuse and protecting cor

03 July, 2019

In a recent Industrial Security podcast,  Patrick Miller was asked about IT vs OT approaches to security. He replied, “We've always characterized it in terms of OT and IT

05 June, 2019

Over the last few decades, the clear path to securing operational technology has been difficult to forge as so much has come from the vast world of IT data protection, encryption and authentication. On the other hand, practitioners on the OT side of the digital network speak about the risks and unwa

23 April, 2019

FireEye reports that the Triton (aka Trisys) malware targeting safety instrumented systems has been discovered at another undisclosed target in the Middle East. As a result of investigating that intrusion, FireEye reports that the threat actors behind Triton are a government-sponsored Russian agency

11 April, 2019

Norsk Hydro has been hit by a ransomware attack. The firm reports that some aluminum smelting plants have switched to manual operations, and some metal extrusion plants have halted production altogether. There are theories that the ransomware was deliberately planted in a corporate Active Directory

20 March, 2019

Waterfall Security is pleased to announce our Industrial Security Podcast featuring interviews with world-recognized experts on a wide range of industrial cybersecurity topics. The podcast will address current and developing ICS topics such as: Do expert ICS penetration testers target live/running s

12 March, 2019

Much has been written and debated regarding communicating cyber risk to boards and other key corporate decision makers. Conveying to a non-technical audience the criticality of cyber vulnerabilities in IT systems that support business functions can be a daunting task; but what if the systems don’t

08 January, 2019

The Carbon Black Quarterly Incident Response Threat Report for 2018 shows that destroying forensic evidence to hide attack sources and attack capabilities is becoming increasingly common. The report quotes an incident response professional as observing that “We’ve seen a lot of destruction of lo

06 November, 2018

The CEO of TSMC - the manufacturer of key chipsets for Apple's iPhones, and for many other global companies - reported Monday that the company was forecasting a drop of 2% in Q3 revenues, or about $160M, due to an infection of its manufacturing facilities by a variant of the Wannacry ransomware.  T

07 August, 2018

OT remote access is efficient and convenient - for attackers Remote access might look like a good idea. Every computer on an enterprise network certainly has some sort of Remote Desktop capability: tech support takes control of my laptop routinely to install new software or to fix issues. Sometim

29 July, 2018

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” - Socrates (470 – 399 B.C.) Definitions are important - good ones shape our understanding of concepts while poor ones impair that understanding. Consider the definition: pen: a tube of ink with a tiny ball bearing at the tipHow useful is

05 July, 2018

Different continents point to similar concerns The Black Hat Asia 2018 attendee survey polled IT and security professionals from 12 East Asian countries, Australia and elsewhere, asking about the threats and challenges they are most concerned with, the attacks and attackers they fear most, as well

05 June, 2018

Written into law The Directive on the Security of Network Information Systems (NIS) represents the first pan-European law covering requirements for cybersecurity. It aims to achieve a common security posture for European countries by means of strengthening 1) cybersecurity capabilities at a nationa

09 May, 2018

The Meltdown / Spectre saga continues. Ulf Frisk just posted a description of a vulnerability he has coined "Total Meltdown". It seems that Microsoft developers introduced an even worse vulnerability while fixing the Meltdown vulnerability in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2. With this broken Me

28 March, 2018

Consider a prolonged power outage over a large metropolitan area, or a cyber attack targeting a nuclear power plant. These are real attacks, not hypothetical ones, that affected people’s lives, and cost owners and operators both monetary and reputational damages.  A key problem with modernization

26 March, 2018

Cybersecurity best practice according to ANSSI, France’s National Agency for the Security of Information Systems, points to unidirectional data flow solutions. Why? Because it’s the safest and most reliable way to segregate and protect your critical network from less trusted networks and cyber t

21 February, 2018

A chronic complaint of industrial control system (ICS) security practitioners is under-funding, and funding decisions for security programs are frequently made by business decision-makers with a limited understanding of cybersecurity and cyber risk issues. Waterfall Security Solutions has just relea

25 January, 2018

Black Hat and Dark Reading’s attendee survey from their recent 2017 Black Hat Europe event is a wake-up call to company stakeholders, boards, and information and operational security practitioners; yielding some significant findings about the perceptions of the current threat landscape. Survey par

10 January, 2018

The big news today is the Spectre and Meltdown bugs. These vulnerabilities let attack code such as Javascript steal passwords, encryption keys and session cookies from kernel memory and/or browser windows on nearly all modern computers. The performance hits and code changes needed to fix these bugs

05 January, 2018

TRITON/TRISIS is the fifth industrial malware found in the wild and the third malware specifically designed to cause damage to physical equipment and jeopardize safety. The malware warrants a stern warning to owners and operators: segment networks properly or face the consequences. The target of t

20 December, 2017

Waterfall Security Solutions is of course an industrial cybersecurity technology provider, but technology is only part of any industrial security program – policies, procedures and training are also essential. This means that the advancement of security education has always been essential to Water

07 December, 2017

Recently, a major Canadian company suffered a targeted ransomware attack and was forced to pay $425,000 to restore the encrypted data of both its production base and back-up servers. We have spoken and warned of ransomware in the past, particularly in the aftermath of the global WannaCry attack. Mos

31 July, 2017

Recently, Waterfall announced a global partnership with intelligence-led security company FireEye, in a push to deliver comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for businesses with industrial sites. The partnership seamlessly integrates FireEye’s cloud-based Threat Analytics Platform (TAP) with relia

25 July, 2017

Recent reports of cyber attacks on U.S. nuclear reactors have brought upon public doubt on the strength of cyber protections at nuclear power plants. The response from nuclear plants has resoundingly been "no need to panic, nothing to see here," but other pundits are saying "I’m not sure I believe

17 July, 2017

I recently attended the NERC CIP Emerging Technologies Round Table meeting on Cloud & IoT, where a primary focus was Bulk Electric System (BES) Cyber Systems in the cloud. BES Cyber Systems are systems with an adverse effect on the BES within 15 minutes of failure or compromise. Interestingly, t

12 July, 2017

 Guest blog The recent WannaCry/WannaCrypt, attacks received global attention in the news and social media. Its widespread impact and rapid propagation shocked and scared people around the world. Concern was amplified by reports that it involved a stolen NSA exploit (EternalBlue). Existing Microso

12 June, 2017

A short while back, I was asked to speak at an event held by The Cyber Resilient Energy Delivery Consortium (CREDC), a research and development initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Its research focuses on cybersecurity and cyber-resiliency of energy delivery systems for the electric p

07 June, 2017

Guest Blog To the non-expert, cyber security can look tantalizingly simple: Just put a guard in front of your stuff and use it to keep the bad guys out. This observation tracks closely with the non-computing analogy of facility entry guards, a favorite comparison brought up during coffee at Board d

04 June, 2017

Recently, Waterfall joined 24 vendors from Industrie 4.0 (I4.0) and the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) in demonstrating secure cloud interconnectivity at the Hannover Messe industrial event. Unidirectional gateway technology and strong encryption was at the heart of this outsourced security de

24 May, 2017

When covering for risk, best practice teaches us to categorize, measure and profile our vulnerabilities. Intel - the world’s largest and most highly valued semiconductor chip maker and inventor of the processors found in most personal computers - knows this process well. Countless tests are run by

18 May, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security recently stated that it had received reports of 59 cyber incidents at energy facilities last year- up nearly a third from the previous year. Those 59 were only a fraction of the 290 incidents the DHS combatted last year across industrial sectors including oil and

30 March, 2017

Recently we’ve received a lot of interest from water and waste management facilities regarding our Unidirectional Security Gateway- which is making me wonder what’s brought this on?  Let’s look at the facts. The primary source for cyber risks in water and waste management facilities comes fro

13 March, 2017

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text] This past month we have witnessed another win in the world of ICS security standards coming f

23 November, 2016

by Mike Firstenberg At the annual EnergySec Conference, no less than 8 speakers used a phrase akin to “It’s not if

31 October, 2016

The Ukraine power grid cyberattack continued to dominate cybersecurity news in February as various researchers reported findings from their investigations of the incident. In other news, researchers discovered sustained cyberattacks against Japan’s critical infrastructure, most likely perpetrated

08 March, 2016

It’s no surprise the cyberattack on Ukraine’s power grid dominated industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity news in January. Following the news of the power outages and subsequent discovery of malware and other signs of a purposeful network intrusion, cybersecurity experts, DHS and others h

16 February, 2016

Recent reports from the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Chatham House, both find that nuclear facilities in many countries are “easy targets for cyberattacks.” Among problems cited in the reports are a significant nuclear presence, few government regulations, and inadequate or corrupt oversight of

16 February, 2016

Three of the seven strategies in the December 2015 report from the DHS NCCIC/ICS-CERT, “Seven Strategies To Secure Industrial Control Systems,” recommend unidirectional gateways for maximum protection from cyberattacks.The report points to an increase in the frequency and complexity of cyber

28 January, 2016

Paul Feldman, director of Midcontinent ISO, and Dan Hill, board member for the New York ISO, recently published “Cybersecurity: IT vs. OT, and the Pursuit of Best Practices” in the January 2016 edition of Electricity Policy. The article reviews the state of control system security in the power g

22 January, 2016

December’s cybersecurity news further illustrated the reality that foreign state hackers are targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. Of greater concern is the fact that much of our infrastructure security is inadequate to protect against a targeted attack. With outdated security and the growing ad

15 January, 2016

The threat of terrorism is top of mind for many, and of increasing concern to those tasked with protecting industrial control systems (ICS). ISIS has issued threats against the North American electric grid, for example. While the cyber capability of ISIS is thus far unsophisticated, advanced attack

11 January, 2016

November news roundup: Why the energy sector is at the heart of cybersecurity discussions In the wake of the ISIS-perpetrated Paris attacks and cyber threats against the U.K., government agencies are stepping up cybersecurity in a bid to detect and defend their critical infrastructure against a cyb

09 December, 2015