Manufacturing Cybersecurity Solutions

The corporate IT network at manufacturing companies houses important data related to finance, intellectual property, HR, product support, field support, and more. Some manufacturers produce Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and collect data from customers who have purchased them—information that sits somewhere on the corporate network. As with other industries, manufacturers are increasingly reliant on cloud-based applications and infrastructure, and IoT devices are growing in number at the network edge.

Whatever sensitive data is housed there, the corporate infrastructure needs a broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity solution with end-to-end integration. The Fortinet Security Fabric provides just such a solution, built on the foundation of FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs.

A wide array of Fortinet manufacturing cybersecurity tools integrates seamlessly into the Fabric, along with dozens of third-party solutions delivered by Fabric Partners. And an open ecosystem and extensive application programming interface (API) tools make the integration of other third-party tools possible.

While many OT systems are now connected to IT systems, recent research by Forrester finds that 40% of OT systems are still air gapped—that is, not connected to any other network. While one might assume that such systems are safe from cyberattacks, they still use IP-based control systems and administrators still install software updates provided by the manufacturer. This gives adversaries an opening to penetrate a system by infecting the updates through the vendor’s network. And while air-gapped systems may not contain sensitive data, infiltrations can cause costly disruptions and safety issues.

As a result, cybersecurity for the manufacturing industry best practices recommend using a next-generation firewall (NGFW) for air-gapped systems, and this must be accompanied with comprehensive cybersecurity tracking and reporting. FortiGate NGFWs provide robust protection and industry-leading performance when inspecting both encrypted and unencrypted traffic. FortiManager provides single-pane-of-glass management and a variety of reporting tools. FortiAnalyzer delivers analytics-powered cybersecurity and log management for maximum visibility and better detection of breaches. The FortiSIEM cybersecurity information and event management tool enables a coordinated and automated response to attacks.

Historically air-gapped OT systems are now frequently being connected to IT systems—and thus to the internet—for a variety of reasons. Digital transformation and the need for business agility are creating increasing co-dependence between IT and OT. From an industrial cybersecurity perspective, the main result of this convergence is a greatly expanded attack surface. And since OT systems often have weak cybersecurity protection, this presents risk to an organization in the short term.

But if cybersecurity issues can be resolved, the potential is great for combining IT and automation networks into a single, secure, manageable, and converged environment. Cybersecurity teams must have centralized visibility into all systems, the ability to segment the network according to business need, and centralized control of both wired and wireless networks.

The Fortinet Security Fabric covers the entire attack surface with a broad, integrated, and automated cybersecurity architecture that enhances industrial cybersecurity and improves operational efficiency. Built on the foundation of FortiGate next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, the Security Fabric provides seamless integration with dozens of cybersecurity tools from Fortinet and its Fabric Partners.

As the industry moves in the direction of a Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) model, third parties have more access than ever before to corporate networks and OT systems. This complicates the notion of the trusted user and forces organizations to assess their vulnerabilities against insider threats—including from third parties. Keeping track of each partner’s cybersecurity posture through regular vetting is critical. Organizations also need robust protection against insider threats, whether those threats are accidental or malicious, and whether they come from within the company or an element of the partner network.

The integrated solutions of the Fortinet Security Fabric provide a multilayered defense against the latest insider threats. Intent-based segmentation capabilities in FortiGate NGFWs allow organizations to segment their network intelligently in a world of dynamic trust. The FortiAuthenticator identity and access management solution and FortiToken tokens leverage that segmentation in granting access to users on a need-to-know basis. FortiInsight uses user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) to identify anomalies in the expected behavior of trusted users and entities that might indicate a compromised account. And FortiDeceptor uses deception technology to deceive, expose, and eliminate attacks originating from internal and external sources.

As with most other industries, manufacturers are moving services to the cloud at a rapid clip. Many now have cloud-based manufacturing resource planning (MRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These systems often pull data from both IT and OT systems for quick and effective decision-making, a process called digital twinning. Cloud-based solutions are also routinely used for services that impact customer experience. For manufacturing security consulting firms, protecting cybersecurity for these assets is critical, meaning that an organization’s integrated cybersecurity architecture must extend from the data center to OT systems to multiple clouds.

The Fortinet Security Fabric enables broad, integrated, and automated protection for the multi-cloud environment, ensuring consistent policy management, configuration management, and threat detection and response across the entire attack surface. FortiGate VM brings the next-generation firewall (NGFW) to a virtual machine that works well for cloud environments, and the FortiWeb web application firewall (WAF), available in several form factors, protects the application layer with in-line, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered threat intelligence.

The FortiCASB cloud access cybersecurity broker (CASB) service provides manufacturing security solutions and insights into resources, users, behaviors, and data stored in the cloud with comprehensive reporting tools, and enables advanced policy controls to be extended to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) resources and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. The FortiCWP cloud workload protection (CWP) tool enables cybersecurity and DevOps teams to evaluate their cloud configuration cybersecurity posture and identify potential threats resulting from misconfigurations.