Critical infrastructure is a foundational aspect of societies and economies. For business leaders in every sector to governments, enhancing the protection of critical infrastructure has become a key goal, as any harm caused to these systems will affect business continuity, security, and resilience management. The more significant a critical infrastructure operation is, the more concerning its security becomes. Attackers are increasingly deploying cyber-physical attacks targeting critical infrastructure – telecommunications, transport, manufacturing, power plants, healthcare, and public sectors. The disruption caused to these critical systems that provide the country with energy, food, water, medicine, and safety can substantially impact our lives.
On the leadership and management front, organizations must proactively keep up with personnel reporting and be vigilant about IT security and operational security. According to Gartner, 80% of critical infrastructure organizations will abandon their existing siloed security solutions by adopting hyper-converged solutions to bridge cyber-physical and IT risks. Advanced technology solutions can facilitate collaborative and resilient security programs when used in tandem with a strong risk and compliance framework. Something that will enable situational awareness and better enable leaders and operators to make decisions, mitigate risks and disruptions caused to the infrastructure systems.
Understanding the critical infrastructure landscape
By 2025, 30% of critical infrastructure organizations will experience a security breach that will halt operations- or mission-critical cyber-physical systems.
- Industrial Control Systems (ICS): ICS are ubiquitous in many areas of critical infrastructure, controlling everything from prison cell doors to nuclear power plants. They are vital for the critical infrastructure’s survival, success, and sustainability.
ICS are bringing powerful capabilities into the critical infrastructure environment along with the evolving threat landscape, making the consequences of attacks far graver. Which is why, it is time we rethink our security models. Being proactive about ICS security means choosing a technology that can circumvent deficiencies and provide highest security protection against internal and external threats. - Operational Technology (OT): OT environment is crucial to critical infrastructure. They are highly customized to support specific physical operations. And, without supervision, these areas become a blind spot for security breaches. The loophole is the absence of a cybersecurity system that spans across both IT and OT.
The first step in this direction is to be aware of existing operations, vulnerabilities, and mitigation to manage risks and embed strong security. We are observing a progressive change in cyber defences to handle and remediate any operational attacks on critical infrastructure.
A winning way forward is to underpin critical infrastructure with more digitized and effective open platform video technology to create a robust physical security system.
Role of Open Platform Video Technology integration to tackle critical infrastructure security
Infrastructure and Operations leaders are tasked with managing all components of physical security infrastructure, like choosing a video surveillance and management system that is scalable and open. A video management based on open architecture provides advanced video and data management, developed to overcome the major challenges – Accessibility, Scalability, Security, and Storage.
A comprehensive video security and control system on an open platform permits centralized command and control of the entire enterprise security network from one place. It is a big leap from traditional analog video technology that was guarded away from the internet, giving rise to the need for remote visibility and bringing together both IT and OT systems.
What would the role of a new-age open platform video technology look like? One that has an efficient recording server and document recording capacity, versatile rule engine that increases operational efficiency, edge storage, failover support, and proactive system health monitoring. Additionally, it supports critical infrastructure with integration and interoperability with legacy and third-party devices. Another vital aspect is a zero-trust policy system that secures remote user access and flexibility to viewing clients.
An open platform video environment can evolve and adapt to any future scenario. The focus should be on bringing the critical puzzle pieces together so systems stay safe and critical operations run smoothly.
Today’s critical infrastructure management needs a fully built, fully ready, and resilient system. Investing in any OT is much more than investing in hardware and software. It means, we are investing in the safety of businesses, people, and assets, so what matters the most can be protected.