Cybersecurity Detection and Response for Manufacturing
Manufacturing companies are discovering the importance of isolation as part of a robust cybersecurity strategy. It’s what Brian Johnson, a cybersecurity consultant and president of 7 Minute Security, refers to as “shields up.” He recently encountered this feature of the Blumira cybersecurity platform while he was conducting a penetration test. Brian was simulating an intruder and trying to find a way into his client’s system. What happened next almost reads like science fiction.
“Blumira detected the anomaly, which immediately triggered ‘shields up,’” said Brian. “That’s the equivalent of pulling the ethernet jack.” Brian initially thought something had gone wrong with his computer. Then his client’s security team called to say they’d been notified of anomalous activity as soon as Blumira isolated the endpoint. Brian, the would-be attacker, was stopped in his tracks. And it’s not science fiction.
Isolation isn’t a new solution for manufacturing environments. The old way, though, was to keep equipment segregated, limiting remote access and interoperability. Sure, that luddite approach could provide protection from damaging cybersecurity incidents – but at the cost of falling behind competitors when it comes to productivity and modernization. “Shields up” protection needs to be part of a robust cybersecurity detection and response solution so you can take advantage of everything technology has to offer – and sleep well at night.
You don’t need to do it all, but your solution can
Cybersecurity detection and response for small- to mid-sized manufacturing companies needs to act like an entire starship crew in one solution. There are many tasks to accomplish and a handful of different approaches to consider. A comprehensive solution will include these components:
Immediate detection – It won’t be a cliché robotic voice droning “intruder alert,” but fast detection means bad actors get noticed before they can move throughout your systems.
Automated isolation – As soon as a threat is detected, day or night, the shields go up. You shouldn’t need a team actively monitoring your systems. When a threat is isolated, there’s no need to panic while you work to handle it.
Prioritized notifications – At first you’ll feel vindicated when your cyberthreat solution pings with every hint of unusual activity. That satisfaction may last a few days until you discover that alert fatigue is real. A well-tuned solution stacks related detections and categorizes notifications by level of urgency.
Guided response – If you’re having to puzzle through reams of activity logs in order to figure out what to do during an attack, you’re both losing time and wasting time. Blumira guides users with playbooks for each detection so it’s easy to take the appropriate steps.
Threat-hunting experts – Once you’ve chosen the right cybersecurity detection and response platform, you shouldn’t have to go it alone. A comprehensive platform gives you access to real cybersecurity experts who can advise on how to respond to an incident.
Long log retention – When an incident happens, analysis of your activity logs will be vital to recovery – that is, if you have them. Your cybersecurity solution should provide for at least two weeks of data retention, otherwise you could be flying blind when you’re asked, “What do we do now?”
Streamlined compliance – Certain aspects of regulatory compliance are now inextricable from cybersecurity protection. You need to have the ability to produce reports for regular audits as well as for last minute requests, and respond with clarity in the event of a breach.
Finding the approach that fits
Approaches to cybersecurity detection and response have evolved as technology has evolved – both on the good-guy and bad-guy sides. Solutions for small- and mid-sized companies fall into these categories:
SIEM – Security Information and Event Management solutions are centralized log management tools that integrate with your applications, systems, and servers to collect logs for analysis. Modern SIEMs go beyond purely log collection and come with pre-built detections and playbooks that guide users through threat response.
EDR – Endpoint detection and response solutions continuously monitor desktops, laptops, servers, and other devices connected to your network to detect malicious behavior or malware. One drawback to relying on EDR alone is that the software is limited to only endpoints.
MDR – Managed detection and response is a service that combines technology with outsourced analysts. While MDR can save on the cost of staffing a SOC (security operations center), MDR still requires local context to complete incident remediation, as they don’t have the same internal knowledge about a customer’s environment as their IT team.
XDR – Expanded detection and response goes beyond endpoints to gather information from networks, servers, cloud applications, and firewalls. Some XDR platforms only work natively with one vendor’s suite of tools, while others provide open XDR that integrates with third-parties for greater visibility and improved detection and response capabilities.
SIEM-driven XDR – In a true best-of-both-worlds solution, SIEM-driven XDR automates detection and response while retaining historical data to help meet compliance requirements. Blumira offers a modern SIEM + XDR that integrates broadly across different tools, including EDRs, to provide deeper visibility, automatically correlate data, and send you contextual findings on high-confidence indicators of threats in your environment.
Choosing a cybersecurity detection and response solution for your manufacturing firm isn’t the stuff of science fiction. Blumira includes robust features that protect your technology so you can continue to modernize your factory.
Try Blumira XDR free for 30 days or use our Free SIEM with three cloud integrations and 14 days of data retention forever. Sign up to start protecting your organization in minutes.
