The case for Operational Technology (OT) Asset Management is growing in importance for organisations. This is because, with the advent of technology in industry operations, the potential risks are far too great for modern security teams to ignore [Operational Technology Security and Asset Management Solution (lansweeper.com)]
Let’s explore how OT Asset Management can help mitigate cybersecurity risks and ensure asset availability
The Foundation: OT Asset Management
Effective OT Asset Management begins with comprehensively understanding and managing your assets. This includes several critical aspects:
Asset Discovery: Knowing what assets you have is the first step. Identifying Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), flow meters, card scanners, and other OT assets in your control systems is essential.
Asset Inventory Management: Regularly tracking, categorizing, and documenting your assets provide essential information for efficient resource allocation, team collaboration, and security maintenance.
Risk management: Once you know your assets, you can identify potential vulnerabilities in your system. This step is crucial for protecting against cyber threats.
Incidents such as the Colonial Pipeline highlighted the importance of Operational Technology Cybersecurity. Organisations should proactively identify and address system vulnerabilities, regularly update software applications and firmware, patch security vulnerabilities, and monitor network traffic for any unusual activity. By taking these proactive steps, organisations can safeguard their operations, productivity, and safety while mitigating the financial risks of cyber incidents.
Ensure optimal OT asset availability: Effective OT Asset Management also includes proactive and predictive maintenance and timely replacement of assets or parts to minimize disruptions. Any disruption or failure of critical assets can result in production delays, financial losses, and reputational damage.
Optimizing resource allocation: Another aspect that highlights the significance of OT Asset Management is optimizing resource allocation. If organisations are able to understand assets in their control systems, they can optimize resource utilization, reduce unnecessary expenditures, and improve operational efficiency.
Operational Technology (OT) Asset Management is vital for organizations to address cybersecurity risks and optimize asset availability. Effectively managing OT assets through discovery, inventory, and risk mitigation enhances operational efficiency and safeguards against potential cyber threats.
Lansweeper & OT Asset Management
Lansweeper now offers robust Discovery and Inventory Management solutions for OT/ICS systems in response to the growing need for greater visibility of industrial environments.
Lansweeper’s OT capability allows users to retrieve data on different types of OT assets PLCs (programmable logic controllers), flow meters, and card scanners, and so on. The insights gathered across OT assets can be used to prevent firmware vulnerabilities, monitor accessibility, and improve the security of the assets.
Now, more than ever, it is important to know your OT assets and add an accurate OT Asset Inventory to your Lansweeper information data store. Learn more about Lansweeper OT here.
We would love to learn about your approach to managing OT assets. Share your insights with us: Product Conversations - Lansweeper Community.
