IT and OT are two different things. Information technology majorly deals with the management of data. This includes collecting the data, storing data, accessing data, etc. This can be the data of an organization. Operational Technology, on the other hand, controls, monitors and manages industrial operations by focusing on the physical devices and the various processes that are being used by these devices.
OT includes the systems of controls and safety that monitor the physical devices of an organization. IT includes business systems and enterprise systems that help organizations in storing, organizing, and sharing their information. Information technology deals with the data and information of an organization but operational technology deals with the physical devices of an organization.
Because of the difference between IT and OT, IT security and OT security both are different. IT security deals with the security of the data of an organization. IT security focuses on the popular CIA model. It makes the organization or individual’s data confidential. The term confidentiality means the data that is being transferred from one individual or system to another individual or system is not accessible to any unauthorized user. The data is only visible to the person who is supposed to read this.
Cybercriminals try different ways to access this data but IT security makes this data confidential in different ways. For example, the data can be made secure by sending this in encrypted form. Encrypted data is the form of data that is not readable until it is decrypted. The decryption can be done only with the decryption key that is only known to the authorized user. So even if the hacker gets access to this data, he will not be able to read this and the data will remain confidential.
IT security also deals with the integrity of data. Integrity means the accuracy of data. The data that is sent from one individual should be received by another individual in the original form. There should be no corruption in the data. Corruption means the data is modified. IT security ensures that the data is received by another individual without any modifications.
Another responsibility of IT security is the availability of data. The data of the organization should be available to the authorized users of the organization. It means the users can access the data when they need it without facing any issues.
OT security for an organization is designed by keeping in mind its OT environment. OT security includes protecting the availability of the system and blocking the attacks that are being made to target the systems that are being used in the OT environment of an organization.
Applications of OT Security
Operational technology security includes the following applications.
Asset Management
OT security deals with the management of critical assets of an organization. These include the industrial machines that are being used in the organization. The security of these assets is necessary for the growing progress of the organization.
Incident Response
Different incidents can happen inside the organization. It is mandatory to carefully deal with such incidents. OT security deals with this situation. OT systems are responsible for safely shutting down the system that is affected or isolating the affected system.
Configuration Management
The configuration of OT systems is complex. Keeping track of all the configurations is a challenging task. The OT security solutions must be capable of securely managing the configurations.
Intrusion Detection
OT systems are connected to the internet. The Internet is one of the widely used mediums to spread malware. So the connectivity to the internet makes the OT systems vulnerable. OT security deals with the detection of such attacks and secures the system.
Physical Security
Physical security means the security of OT systems, devices, and the complete infrastructure. OT security provides physical security through different means that include locks, cameras, etc.
Applications of IT Security
Following are the applications of IT security.
Network Security
Every organization has its network that must be secured from unauthorized access. IT security makes an organization’s network secure through different measures such as firewalls.
Application Security
There can be different applications running for an organization. The security of the application is necessary for the security of the data. Different attacks can be made through a vulnerable application. These attacks can damage the database of the organization that has important data. The security of such applications comes under IT security. These applications are secured in different ways such as validating the inputs etc.
Endpoint Security
IT security also makes the endpoints secure. This includes the security of those devices that are connected to the network. This can be done by installing antivirus on these devices.
Data Security
The security of an organization’s data is important. This comes under IT security. Encryption is one of the ways to make data secure from unauthorized access.
Access Control
The access for the users of an organization is defined by the administrator. Some users are allowed to only read a part of the data, while others are allowed to modify the data etc.
The above discussion shows how IT security and OT security are different disciplines but both are mandatory for an organization. The OT network traffic analysis helps in detecting OT attacks. A system can serve a particular number of users. The user sends the request to the system. When the number of requests increases from the system limit then the system becomes unavailable to the users. Cybercriminals send unlimited requests to the system to make it unavailable for its users. This is called the denial of service attack. OT network traffic analysis helps in securing the system from such attacks. The traffic is filtered and only the right requests are transferred to the system.