Assessing cybersecurity at an industrial unit 4.0

• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Silvino Pires dos
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11960/3431
• topic: Industry 4.0; IT/OT convergence; Security assessment; Smart manufacturing; Indústria 4.0; Convergência de IT/OT; Avaliação de segurança; Manufatura inteligente

The last 20 years have emerged significant developments in industrial production and development, with new technologies, networks and emerging production systems due to the development of the internet and new distributed adaptive production systems. These architectures resulted in improved service activities, new business models and increased demand and offering of goods, resulting in fewer interactions among production system participants. The convergence of IT/OT environments has increased the complexity and vulnerability of previously isolated OT/ICS networks, and the growing need to expand automation in the industry creates a big challenge in terms of cybersecurity. In this context, how can we identify suspicious activity, assess risks and help prevent downtime in an increasingly technological industry? For this thesis, data collected through an online survey on the subject of convergence in the national industry was analyzed in order to know if this subject, from the perspective of professionals, deserves the attention of the organizations where they develop their professional activity with technologies of IT/OT. A set of real cases and the consequences of serious security failures that occurred in the period between 2021 and 2023, increasingly common, with an impact on the global industry, are identified and analyzed. The technological complexity that results from the convergence between information technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) is analyzed, highlighting in practice the challenges for which cybersecurity has to prepare itself in order to develop effective and context-adjusted responses under review. The biggest challenge lies in the cyber-secure integration of data-centric computing technologies in the IT systems with the monitoring of events, processes and devices in the OT systems. After analyzing the complexity of the IT/OT technologies essential for Industry 4.0, we recommend a careful reading of the set of frameworks described in this document about internationally recognized good practices in cybersecurity. Regular access to public databases, described in this document, on risk patterns and fundamental vulnerabilities is recommended for the development of an updated cybersecurity strategy. Finally, good practices are described to analyze, frame and apply to avoid risk situations by monitoring the trend of cybersecurity incidents, known software flaws, as well as vulnerabilities and associated risks, which can result in ransomware and its associated consequences.