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Cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure have become so commonplace that they seldom make sensational headlines anymore. Yet, these cyber incursions profoundly disrupt citizens and enterprises alike, as our daily existence is intricately woven with essential infrastructures such as power grids, intelligent transportation systems, and water treatment facilities.
To mitigate the impact of these cyber threats, governments worldwide are enacting legislation and regulations to fortify cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. For instance, by October 2024, European Union member states are mandated to incorporate the NIS2 Directive into their national laws to enhance cybersecurity for vital services. Consequently, industrial organizations must adopt a comprehensive cybersecurity framework and implement robust solutions to meet these stringent cybersecurity standards and regulations.
Industrial cybersecurity standards and regulations often advocate for defense-in-depth strategies, which involve layering multiple protective measures to minimize security risks for organizations. Industrial operators frequently focus on reinforcing network perimeters and establishing security zones to curtail potential threats from external sources. However, addressing internal vulnerabilities is equally critical because unprotected internal devices can compromise the entire network. For example, inserting a malware-infected portable storage device can breach your network, allowing adversaries to seize control. Thus, safeguarding your network from both internal and external threats is of paramount importance. Industrial firewalls adeptly filter traffic to prevent potential threats from any direction. Nevertheless, industrial operators often harbor concerns about network performance when deploying industrial firewalls within LANs near their critical assets.
This article explores four predominant concerns faced by various stakeholders—asset owners, chief information security officers (CISOs), system integrators, OT network administrators, and industrial network architects—when implementing firewall solutions. It also highlights how next-generation industrial LAN firewalls overcome these challenges to bolster network security while ensuring uninterrupted network operation.
While implementing firewall solutions elevates the security posture of your industrial operations, these changes can affect current workflows. Striking a balance between network security and performance is a challenging endeavor. Let's delve into the four concerns prompting industrial operators to seek solutions for smoother implementations.
Deploying industrial firewall solutions into existing networks can lead to significant changes in network topology. Redesigning the architecture and reconfiguring IP subnets to integrate the new firewall solution demands substantial effort and time from industrial engineers. This is particularly problematic for critical applications that cannot tolerate any network downtime. Therefore, industrial operators need a firewall solution that integrates seamlessly without requiring modifications to their current network configurations.
Uninterrupted system operations rely on seamless network communications. A significant worry when introducing new devices to enhance cybersecurity is whether they meet existing network performance criteria, such as startup time, network latency, and environmental operating conditions. Moreover, the addition of new devices increases the risk of network outages due to maintenance or device malfunctions. Hence, a firewall solution must prioritize network performance and mitigate the risk of a complete shutdown resulting from a single point of failure.
Standards like IEC 62443 and frameworks such as NIS2 mandate that critical assets be shielded against DoS attacks and maintain event logs during security incidents. However, many critical assets in industrial applications are legacy devices operating on outdated systems and cannot be promptly upgraded to meet these network security requirements. To protect legacy devices from escalating threats, a firewall solution is needed that doesn't necessitate frequent system updates. Additionally, a myriad of legacy devices at field sites utilize diverse industrial communication protocols tailored to specific application needs. For enhanced communication security, a firewall solution must support these protocols and perform granular data analysis within industrial control networks.
To preserve the integrity of your networks, perpetual monitoring and management of network security are crucial. This demands substantial time and effort from administrators to vigilantly oversee network status, ensuring they receive immediate notifications when network anomalies or security events transpire. The absence of an efficacious monitoring mechanism for firewall solutions leads to delays in network error detection and security event alerts, culminating in prolonged network downtimes and diminished operational efficiency.
With our EDF-G1002-BP Series industrial LAN firewalls, industrial operators can surmount networking obstacles, ensuring both network security and operational continuity. Operating in transparent firewall mode, these LAN firewalls prioritize the protection of your critical assets and facilitate secure east-west communication within the LAN.
The inherent design of our LAN firewalls permits deployment without reconfiguring IP subnets. Such an approach is ideal for critical applications that cannot accommodate changes to the existing network topology. To streamline network installations, our 2-port LAN firewalls support bump-in-the-wire installations, enabling engineers to simply connect these LAN firewalls ahead of critical assets without altering IP subnets. This ensures minimal disruption to existing configurations while enhancing network security.
Our LAN firewalls boast a rapid boot time of merely 30 seconds. This swift initialization ensures that, during a power outage and subsequent recovery, the anomaly detection mechanisms between the control center and terminal PLC equipment are not erroneously triggered. Furthermore, our LAN firewalls feature a LAN Bypass function that prevents hardware or software anomalies from causing the firewall to disrupt operational services. Both mechanisms are designed to achieve uninterrupted operations.
Facilitating the protection of legacy devices is the cornerstone mission of our LAN firewalls. Engineered for industrial applications, they incorporate Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technologies to reinforce network security. Industrial-grade IPS designs safeguard your legacy devices, including PLCs and HMIs. Our IPS functions protect your legacy equipment from contemporary threats using virtual patches and pattern-based defenses, affording you additional time to update your systems. With our DPI technology, you gain enhanced control over the security of your industrial communications. To maintain data integrity, you can, for example, define rules that restrict Modbus equipment to read-only access. You can effortlessly protect legacy devices employing different protocols, benefiting from our DPI technology's support for multiple industrial protocols and advanced traffic filtering capabilities.
By utilizing our LAN firewalls to secure your network and legacy devices, you can streamline network monitoring and security management with our MXview One network management software and MXsecurity network security management software. MXview One provides a comprehensive view of network security status and alerts you when network errors occur. With MXsecurity, you can effectively manage firewalls and monitor security events. Implementing firewall policies on a centralized platform minimizes manual errors inherent in individual configurations. Moreover, our software notifies you of security events, enabling swift responses and risk mitigation.
The EDF-G1002-BP Series represents an advanced LAN firewall solution that elevates industrial cybersecurity while delivering the reliability your applications demand. Visit our website to discover more about the features our EDF-G1002-BP Series offers.
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