Securing critical infrastructure amid escalating global tensions

Security continues to take hold as a national priority and has become a political election agenda item. Recently, the Australian Cyber Security Centre issued a “high alert” to local organisations as we experience a global uptick in cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, such as governments and banking.

With geopolitical tensions continuing to rise, the threat of a cybersecurity attack on business and government enterprises has skyrocketed emphasising the urgency to upgrade and leverage the most cutting-edge technology to thoroughly secure critical infrastructure environments.

While security threats evolve in complexity and evasive techniques, Dicker Data is at the forefront working with global best-in-class cybersecurity vendors who offer our valued partners the most robust and holistic solutions backed by state-of-the-art technology and value-added services.

Here are three ways Dicker Data, with our vendor partners, can help you and your customers secure critical infrastructure against increasingly frequent and sophisticated cyberthreats.

1. Greater connectivity needs a stronger defence

Year on year there has been more than a 2,000 percent increase in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure[1], with no signs of slowing down as geopolitical tensions escalate. As organisations are increasingly connected in both physical and digital environments, critical infrastructure protection is now a non-negotiable for business and government.

Today, 93 percent of enterprises, 92 percent of industrial organisations, and 87 percent of healthcare organisations use The Internet of Things (IoT). A third of these connected devices are unmanaged on a network[2]. Modern businesses are battling multi-vector attacks on mobile, cloud and various enterprise networks which could cripple infrastructure and services.

Check Point’s Infinity Architecture is a combination of real-time threat prevention, consolidated central management, shared intelligence, and advanced security across network, cloud, endpoint and mobile to protect critical infrastructures. Infinity enables organisations to solve security gaps, reduce risk, and protect the complete infrastructure at all vectors. Check Point’s IoT solution minimises the attack surface across Operational Technology (OT) networks and other critical infrastructure, such as smart buildings, and provides auto-detection and remediation of threats.

The sheer variety of devices and solutions in today’s business environment means organisations are challenged to maintain security in a unified and strategic way. OT systems, with their proprietary protocols, introduce an added challenge as organisations must adapt strategies to accommodate industrial operations and associated assets.

NetWitness’ IoT security solution, distributed exclusively through Dicker Data, is a SaaS-native solution delivering comprehensive visibility across an organisation’s entire critical infrastructure. It addresses the challenge of monitoring and securing disparate devices with a flexible and scalable solution for maintaining security at far reaches of an enterprise IT infrastructure.

Greater connectivity means we need stronger defences to protect and maintain day-to-day operations. Working with you as a strategic business partner, Dicker Data’s highly certified and trained experts help provide interoperability guidance when introducing new systems into legacy environments and ensure best practice measures are deployed for robust protection.

2. Bridging the gap between IT and OT

As IT and OT environments become more and more interconnected, a cohesive approach to security is a must. At Dicker Data, we know a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t deliver the service or protection your customers need, which is why we work with our vendor partners to develop bespoke solutions. Interconnectivity and interoperability mean first class service and deep business understanding are vital when delivering security solutions. To address this, Trustwave encompasses consulting and professional advisory to its critical infrastructure security service, ensuring thorough knowledge of your customer’s operating environment. Through this deep relationship it reviews and recommends security controls, establishes policies and procedures and penetration testing to harden OT and IoT environments, ensures compliance with ever-evolving regulatory requirements, and protects and responds to security incidents. Trustwave services more than 200,000 business and government clients globally and has been recognised as a world-class Managed Security Services provider.

Each industry has unique requirements when protecting its systems, which is why we have partnered with specialist global leaders. For example, Trend Micro has developed a range of TXOne solutions that offer protection for Industrial Critical Infrastructures, including smart buildings, Scada, ICS, and many more. The TXOne solutions are designed to secure these environments by securing devices, controllers, PLC's, and the overall network they reside on. Its solutions bridge the gap between IT and OT environments.

OT networks are more complex than IT networks with broader attack surfaces. Modern IT security measures are not equipped to protect these environments. This is why it is important to partner with providers who have specialist insight across OT and IT and can develop the right solution.

3. A security solution focused on data protection

Increasingly, boards and senior leaders are recognising the risks of cybersecurity attacks on critical infrastructure and operations, with recent research showing 65 percent believe the risk is significant or extremely significant[3]. To counter this, executives are focusing resources to educate every level of the business on threat detection, prevention, and escalation. However, awareness and understanding are not enough. To truly address the growing threat, it is crucial to partner with experts who can design automated, consistent, and reliable security solutions tailored to your business. Cisco Critical Infrastructure does this through secure networking for mission-critical data across all network connections, providing streamlined, centralised, and robust security protection.

As use of corporate cloud environments increases, Nutanix has developed a secure software foundation specifically designed for hybrid cloud infrastructures. It starts with Nutanix AOS which protects application data for workloads running on an HCI cluster. As a hardened software platform for HCI, AOS builds on that foundation with features and functions to increase security posture and aid customers with not just the prevention and detection of security threats but also preventing data loss and ensuring continuous business operations. 

Protecting critical infrastructures has never been more business critical as geopolitical risks rise. At Dicker Data we are not just focused on the end solution but partner early to educate on the growing diversity of threats and develop a thorough understanding of unique operational requirements and exposure points. We give customers the confidence to know they not only have the right systems and controls in place, leveraging our best-in-class security partners, but they also have the knowledge and understanding to demystify the complexities of critical infrastructure systems and security requirements. Our in-depth knowledge of the technology and security ecosystem means we can develop bespoke end-to-end solutions to secure your customers’ operations in any environment.

[1] Check Point
[2] Check Point
[3] Willis Towers Watson & Clyde & Co