Extending Zero Trust Security

Security in Industrial Networks

Extending Zero Trust Security to Industrial Networks

Ruben Lobo, Cisco

Recent cyber attacks on industrial organizations and critical infrastructures have made it clear: operational and IT networks are inseparably linked. With digitization, data needs to seamlessly flow between enterprise IT and industrial OT networks for the business to function. This tighter integration between IT, OT, and Cloud domains has increased the attack surface of both – the industrial and the enterprise networks.

The traditional security perimeter that industrial organizations have built over the years by installing industrial demilitarized zone (IDMZ) is no longer sufficient. While this is still the mandatory first step to protect operations, embracing the digital industry revolution requires additional security measures, assuming that no user, application, or connected device are trustworthy anymore.

The Zero Trust Security model that many are now implementing to secure the enterprise workforce, workloads, and the workplace must be extended to industrial operations. It continuously verifies resources to establish trust and compliance in every access request. It identifies not just users, but endpoints, and applications to grant them the absolute minimum access they need.

I recently presented a webinar explaining the specific Zero Trust requirements for IoT/OT networks:  ... '