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OT Cybersecurity in 2021 and Beyond Series: Part I – Threat Landscape

“In 2020, breaches are the digital pandemic proving to be just as insidious and difficult to stop as Covid-19.”

– Forbes

With 2020 in the rearview, all are looking ahead to what 2021 will hold and beyond. But, similar to how it started, 2020 didn’t end quietly.

One of the last notable events of the year, the SolarWinds cyber-attack, left businesses and government organizations alike with a renewed focus on cybersecurity. And as the scope and impact of the SolarWinds attack continue to come to light, organizations can waste no time in protecting their networks, operations, and businesses.

To that end, Mission Secure collaborated with guest authors from various perspectives to share their insights on what’s next for OT cybersecurity and what organizations need to consider as they plan their 2021 cyber-protection strategies and beyond. This series will cover three key topics: the threat landscape, risk management, and protection.

In Part I, Mark Whittley of BlackPanda, a cyber crisis management firm; Jonathon Gordon of Takepoint Research, an analyst firm; Steve Mustard of the International Society of Automation, a non-profit professional association and standards organization; and Mission Secure’s Paul Robertson, discuss the future of the evolving threat landscape. Check out their responses organized by topic and see what threats 2021 may hold for industrial control system (ICS) / operational technology (OT) networks.


Question: How will cyber threats evolve for OT networks in 2021? Any predictions on specific targets, the largest threat actors, or most common attack methods?


Threat Trend #1: Targeting OT network vulnerabilities

Mark Whittley, VP of Digital Forensics and Incident Response at BlackPanda: Threats to OT have been largely minimal relative to the volume of threats we see for IT. However, OT systems are far more easily attacked due to their age (OT systems (Read more...)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The Mission Secure Blog authored by Roark Pollock. Read the original post at: https://www.missionsecure.com/blog/ot-cybersecurity-in-2021-and-beyond-series-part-i-threat-landscape