The role of channel partners and service providers in securing OT environments will increase as the environments become more complex and the lines between IT and OT increasingly blurred. Companies in OT-heavy industries often need outside help in tackling security challenges. The cross-company collaboration required to achieve this can help to address long standing disagreements. Executives from Fortinet, Check Point Software, Barracuda share their perspectives.
Shane Grennan, Senior Director, Partner Sales and Business Development MET, Fortinet
As OT organisations introduce new digital tools and technologies to their environments, their security challenges have grown more complex. While some progress has been made over the last 12 months in OT security posture and investment in essential tools and capabilities, it is clear that there is more work to be done to manage an increasing number of attacks in a post-IT, OT convergence world.
Three notable trends that emerged in our 2024 State of OT Security Report is that intrusions and their impacts on organisations have worsened over the past year. We also found that responsibility for OT cybersecurity is elevating within executive leadership ranks.
As a channel partner, you have a unique opportunity to help your customers navigate this complex landscape and secure their critical assets. By implementing OT security solutions, your customers can, among others, reduce the risk of cyber incidents and protect their critical assets and data, ensure the reliability and availability of their operations, minimising downtime, and gain full visibility into their OT networks and identify potential vulnerabilities.
To help your customers overcome the challenges of implementing OT security, focus on providing comprehensive training and support to build in-house expertise, flexible and scalable solutions that adapt to unique OT environments, clear guidance on best practices and regulatory compliance, and compelling ROI justifications and flexible pricing models.
The OT security opportunity in the UAE is significant and growing, with a wide range of industries and company types in need of robust solutions. By understanding the unique challenges and requirements of OT security and providing the necessary support and guidance, you can effectively capitalise on this opportunity and build long-term, strategic relationships with your customers.
Prashant Menon, Channel Leader UAE, Check Point Software Technologies
As industrial control systems, increasingly integrate with IT systems, channel partners in the OT security space encounter both significant opportunities and complex challenges. The convergence of IT and OT systems, driven by the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT, has expanded the market demand for robust OT security solutions.
This integration enables organisations across industries to achieve greater efficiency and productivity through centralised monitoring and management. However, it also necessitates specialised security measures to protect these interconnected environments from cyber threats. This growing demand can be capitalised on by offering comprehensive security solutions, such as Check Point’s ICS security, which provide proactive strategies to minimise risks, block threats, and enhance operational efficiency.
Despite these opportunities, the complexity of OT environments presents significant challenges. OT networks are often geographically dispersed and rely on legacy systems, making asset discovery and continuous monitoring difficult. Ensuring high availability and uptime is critical in OT environments, complicating the implementation of traditional security measures such as regular updates and malware remediation. Solutions must be developed to ensure security without disrupting operational continuity.
Additionally, balancing the need for security with the requirement for uninterrupted functionality is crucial, ensuring that security measures do not impede industrial processes.
Another challenge is securing OT environments that use diverse protocols and standards, significantly different from those in IT environments. Developing expertise in these protocols and ensuring compatibility and effectiveness of security solutions are essential. Furthermore, navigating the complex regulatory landscape, with varying requirements across different industries and regions, adds another layer of complexity.
It is important to stay informed about relevant regulations and ensure security solutions help clients achieve and maintain compliance. By addressing these opportunities and challenges, channel partners can play a critical role in enhancing the security of industrial control systems, contributing to the safety, reliability, and efficiency of critical infrastructure and industrial operations.
Stefan Schachinger, Product Manager, Network Security, Barracuda
The convergence of IT and OT offers immense opportunities for companies to design and implement efficient and cost-optimised processes. The cross-company collaboration required to achieve this can help to address long standing disagreements between those responsible for each area, benefiting all parties involved.
For example, IT teams with a more traditional approach will need to understand that operational technology often has different priorities and changes of any kind must be approached with great care. At the same time, OT teams have much to gain from IT’s experience, security skills, and modern tools.
For channel partners, the IT, OT convergence presents a significant opportunity to act as bridge builders and support customers with their knowledge and understanding of both IT and OT requirements and priorities. Put simply, the IT security expertise of channel partners will help businesses to implement adequate OT security.
Trends such as increased networking in industrial control systems, ICS and newly established communication paths between machines and applications enlarge a business’ attack surface and must be taken care of. Companies often lack the necessary resources to develop and implement comprehensive security strategies. It is crucial to identify and evaluate security gaps and then address them.
Internal network segmentation and securing remote maintenance access are proven security tactics. Internet-facing systems such as APIs, management interfaces and remote access channels must be checked. Modern security concepts should always be layered to contain compromises as much as possible and prevent total failures. A new and uncrowded market is opening for resellers and consultants who have the knowledge and expertise to help.
However, implementing effective security measures is not enough on its own. The ability to respond to and recover from security incidents while remaining operational is equally vital. Cyber-attacks usually happen at inconvenient times when the affected companies cannot easily respond.
For partners this presents an opportunity to offer managed security services, ideally with a 24×7 Security Operations Centre. OT environments need to be operational around the clock, and outages can cause severe disruption and damage. Security incidents demand a quick and precise investigation to locate and contain the problem. The time to detection and response is often crucial and access to a SOC can make all the difference.
If you are a channel business and you have not considered IT, OT security before, now is the time to start.
