{"id":18,"date":"2024-05-29T20:28:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=18"},"modified":"2024-05-29T20:28:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T20:28:09","slug":"forescout-ceo-barry-mainz-on-operational-technology-and-cybersecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Forescout CEO Barry Mainz on Operational Technology and Cybersecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spoke with Barry Mainz<\/a>, CEO of Forescout<\/a>, about the key trends impacting security in operational technology (OT), which is the process of using hardware and software to monitor and control industrial equipment. OT primarily interacts with the physical world, in contrast with IT deployments that focus on the software stack.<\/p>\n

A core part of the OT process is, of course, cybersecurity. Mainz explained Forescout\u2019s approach to OT security: \u201cWe provide the ability to take a look at what assets are on your network. We can classify them, tell you what they are, what version, and we help people assign risk to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo based on the [network] behavior, is there a risk profile that you prefer and not prefer? We give companies the capabilities to detect and respond, and then we have control. If someone comes on the network and we don\u2019t like what we see, we can block them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do that for not only managed devices, but here\u2019s what\u2019s turning out to be really exciting: we also do that for unmanaged devices without an agent. So that could be OT devices or IoT devices.\u201d This ability to managed a mixed set of devices enables a wider range of OT cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview or <\/strong>jump to select interview highlights below.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Interview Highlights: <\/strong>Forescout CEO Barry Mainz on Operational Technology and Cybersecurity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This interview took place at the recent RSA Conference<\/a> in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/em>The comments below have been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

IT and OT: Working Together<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Traditionally, there\u2019s been a separation between the OT staff and IT staff, and Mainz sees this shifting in a positive manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are organizational structure changes that we\u2019re starting to see. Because in a typical organization you have the IT folks, they report up through CISO, and there is an OT division, which often reports up to the COO or something different.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we\u2019re starting to see some structural changes based on: we\u2019ve got to bring these [two groups] together a bit. Maybe not completely, but let\u2019s put in some routines that we build upon. Let\u2019s ask, how do we measure risk? How do we do things as a company? Hey, the government has come to us and said, \u2018we\u2019ve got to disclose,\u2019 what does that mean?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I think we\u2019re starting to see a lot of the routines change on how [management] looks at the business. I\u2019ve even see one company, I thought it was pretty clever: they\u2019re moving people from IT, moving them into OT.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sense of a combined focus on operations offers great potential, Mainz said. Companies are asking, \u201cHow should we be thinking about the reporting? What tools and technologies should we use? And that seems to be working. There\u2019s three or four companies I know that are starting to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Challenges of OT Security <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cAbout 10 months ago it started popping up that the embedded operating systems were showing that they were being exploited. And the embedded operating systems are the ones that are in the critical infrastructure in planes, trains, and automobiles, they\u2019re more vulnerable \u2013 they\u2019re very vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re hard to fix. Let\u2019s say you have a bunch of PLCs (programmable logic controllers) in a device that\u2019s in a manufacturing plant. You could have 4,000 of those things. How do you update? They\u2019re hard-coded in. So it makes it more complicated and a little more challenging to say, \u2018What do we do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem, Mainz explained, is that OT staff may not even know the exact location of these compromised devices because they\u2019re built in to a larger structure. \u201cIt\u2019s in an industrial robot, for example. That\u2019s a headache,\u201d Mainz said. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve got to take the thing apart to go find it. So there are some challenges, physical challenges, and I do feel like we\u2019ve got to get our arms around it \u2013 let\u2019s put together some solutions. Let\u2019s be smart about it. And the good news is, at Forescout, we have solutions that can help them today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Forescout CEO Barry Mainz on Operational Technology and Cybersecurity<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spoke with Barry Mainz, CEO of Forescout, about the key trends impacting security in operational technology (OT), which is the process of using hardware and software to monitor and control industrial equipment. OT primarily interacts with the physical world, in contrast with IT deployments that focus on the software stack. A core part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}