The Impacts of Over-Connectivity and Mobile Defeatism

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The good, the bad and the ugly of mobile device security in the expanding OT attack landscape.
Included in the challenges associated with securing an ever-expanding OT attack surface is the role played by the increasing use of mobile devices – at both the enterprise and individual level. In fact, according to a recent report from Imprivata, only 46 percent of manufacturing organizations have the ability to maintain control over who has access to such devices and when, and 61 percent are using shared pin numbers to secure these devices.

Additionally, an average of 16 percent of these devices are lost each year, costing organizations over $5M annually, not to mention the collateral damage from a security perspective. This translates to an opportunity for hackers to unleash catastrophic damage by leveraging any vulnerabilities in areas like remote monitoring, and potentially new ways to worm into the networks associated with controlling your machines and systems.
Watch/listen as Joel Burleson-Davis, SVP of Cyber Engineering at Imprivata, returns to Security Breach to discuss OT mobile device security, as well as:

• The journey the industrial sector has made from devices that were never intended to be connected, to what Joel describes as OT "super connectivity".
• Why OT continues to be an easy target for hackers.
• The evolution of hacking groups.
• How we might be over-doing all the connectivity.
• The double-edged sword that is mobile use in the industrial sector.
• Avoiding 'mobile defeatism'.
• Combatting the growing number of dwelling or living-off-the-land attacks.

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast. And if you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at [e-mail].
To download our latest report on industrial cybersecurity, The Industrial Sector’s New Battlefield, click here.