55% of OT Environments Contain Four or More Remote Access Tools, Greatly Expanding Attack Surface and Operational Complexity

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Sep 10, 2024, 09:00 ET

New Research from Claroty's Team82 Finds Organizations Looking to Increase Efficiency in OT Are Creating Excessive Cybersecurity Risks and Operational Burdens

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Claroty, the cyber-physical systems (CPS) protection company, today released new research from Team82 on remote access tool sprawl and the risk exposures it introduces to operational technology (OT) environments. Data from more than 50,000 remote-access-enabled devices showed that the volume of remote access tools deployed is excessive, with 55% of organizations having four or more and 33% having six or more.

Team82's research also found that a staggering 79% of organizations have more than two non-enterprise-grade tools installed on OT network devices. These tools lack basic privileged access management capabilities such as session recording, auditing, role-based access controls, and even basic security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). The consequence of utilizing these types of tools is increased, high-risk exposures and additional operational costs from managing a multitude of solutions.

"Since the onset of the pandemic, organizations have been increasingly turning to remote access solutions to more efficiently manage their employees and third-party vendors, but while remote access is a necessity of this new reality, it has simultaneously created a security and operational dilemma," said Tal Laufer, VP Products, Secure Access at Claroty. "While it makes sense for an organization to have remote access tools for IT services and for OT remote access, it does not justify the tool sprawl inside the sensitive OT network that we have identified in our study, which leads to increased risk and operational complexity."

Learn more about Team82's findings in the report, "The Problem with Remote Access Sprawl."

While many of the remote access solutions found in OT networks may be used for IT-specific purposes, their existence within industrial environments can potentially create critical exposure and compounding security concerns that include:

Lack of visibility: In cases where third-party vendors connect to the OT environment using their own remote access solutions, OT network administrators and security personnel who are not centrally managing these solutions have little to no visibility into the associated activity
Increased attack surface: More external connections into the network via remote access tools mean more potential attack vectors through which substandard security practices or leaked credentials can be used to penetrate the network.
Complex identity management: Multiple remote access solutions require a more concentrated effort to create consistent administration and governance policies surrounding who has access to the network, to what, and for how long. This increased complexity can create blind spots in access rights management.

According to Gartner®, security and risk management (SRM) leaders should, "perform a full inventory of all remote connections across the entire organization, as shadow remote access likely exists throughout operational networks, particularly at field sites," and "remove older remote access solutions when deploying newer CPS secure remote access solutions. Organizations commonly deploy new solutions without focusing on what is left behind, and with the number of exploited VPN vulnerabilities growing, this could be a significant blind spot."¹

Claroty's xDome Secure Access provides organizations with built-for-OT remote operations capabilities and OT-aware security architecture, delivering comprehensive visibility into both OT devices and the users connecting to them. The solution can now be deployed either on-premise or in the cloud, enabling organizations to optimize remote access management and reduce their total cost of ownership. Recognizing that no two CPS environments are identical, xDome Secure Access provides flexible, operations-specific remote access regardless of an organization's geographic spread, network architecture, or cloud maturity, all while enabling regulatory compliance with frameworks such as NIST and NIS2.

To learn more about xDome Secure Access, request a demo.

¹ Gartner, Innovation Insight: CPS Secure Remote Access Solutions, Katell Thielemann, Abhyuday Data, Wam Voster, 18 April 2024. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About Claroty
Claroty has redefined cyber-physical systems (CPS) protection with an unrivaled industry-centric platform built to secure mission-critical infrastructure. The Claroty Platform provides the deepest asset visibility and the broadest, built-for-CPS solution set in the market comprising exposure management, network protection, secure access, and threat detection – whether in the cloud with Claroty xDome or on-premise with Claroty Continuous Threat Detection (CTD). Backed by award-winning threat research and a breadth of technology alliances, The Claroty Platform enables organizations to effectively reduce CPS risk, with the fastest time-to-value and lower total cost of ownership. Claroty is deployed by hundreds of organizations at thousands of sites globally. The company is headquartered in New York City and has a presence in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit claroty.com.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Claroty