Operational Technology (OT) at Risk: Key Takeaways Following the Colonial Pipeline and Oldsmar Water Treatment Breaches - Sponsored by: Grant Thornton

The latest breach to the Colonial Pipeline highlights the importance of cybersecurity in critical infrastructure. Following the ransomware infection, Colonial had to shut down its pipeline control system—which is responsible for approximately 45 per cent of the fuel for the East Coast of the US. This comes as the municipal water facility for Oldsmar, FL is recovering from a breach where an attacker attempted to raise sodium hydroxide levels in the water being treated to levels that could harm its residents. Although the Colonial breach details are not fully known, the Oldsmar breach occurred due to weak access controls and the use of insecure remote access software. Key takeaways: The Oldsmar breach was thwarted because a water utility technician noticed irregularities in changes to the sodium hydroxide level in the utility’s control system. The question is: how well are utilities proactively monitoring their OT environments for cybersecurity events? Luck should not be a factor in identif ...