Embracing Zero Trust principles and protecting against hardware-based attacks are essential for securing critical infrastructure. A nation’s capacity to safeguard its citizens depends significantly on the integrity of this infrastructure, which includes vital sectors such as government, healthcare, finance, energy, transportation, and telecommunications. This infrastructure plays a key role in meeting essential needs and, unfortunately, serves as a prime target for malicious actors looking to disrupt these services. Therefore, adopting Zero Trust and implementing effective hardware-based security measures within critical infrastructure is crucial.
Critical Infrastructures Cyber Security
Critical infrastructure is just that, critical. So, while it is invaluable to a nation, it is also perceived as valuable to a malicious cybercriminal. Because of its importance, critical infrastructure is an attractive target for bad actors seeking sabotage. As critical infrastructure becomes more reliant on technology, it becomes more susceptible to cyberattacks. Which can threaten the operability of such entities.
What if healthcare services suddenly ceased to exist? How would our economy operate without financial institutions? The implications would be dire, and that’s why these sectors invest heavily in protective measures to reduce their attack vulnerabilities. However, complete security is impossible, and attackers are always on the lookout for blind spots that go unaddressed. One of the most alarming threats comes from hardware-based security vulnerabilities.
Hardware-Based Attacks and Rogue Devices
Hardware-based attacks exploit rogue devices that evade detection by current security solutions by functioning at the physical layer. Spoofed peripherals disguise themselves as legitimate human interface devices (HIDs). Due to the limited visibility at the physical layer, these rogue devices are incorrectly recognized as the genuine devices they mimic.
Network Implants also operate on the physical layer, going undetected by any network security software. This includes NAC, thereby not triggering any security alerts.
Hardware based attacks require the perpetrator to gain some form of physical access. But once the device is inserted, the attacker can gain remote access to the target’s resources and data. Depending on the device used, an attacker can carry out several harmful attacks. Including data theft, espionage, MiTM attacks, Evil Maid Attacks, malware injection, DDoS, and more.
As critical infrastructure can be a difficult target to attack. A perpetrator would likely be a state-sponsored actor who possesses the necessary capabilities. Additionally, targeting an adversary’s critical infrastructure is a big win. Even if there is no substantial damage, successfully infiltrating a nation’s critical infrastructure can cause significant distress among the population and undermine their confidence in the government’s ability to preserve national security. Again, because of this, it is likely that a culprit would have some ties to a government.
So, how is critical infrastructure vulnerable? Of course, it is not one-size-fits-all, but below are a few vulnerabilities that are generic to critical infrastructure.
Identifying Blind Spots Exploited by Hackers
Outdated Legacy Systems
Critical infrastructure frequently relies on outdated systems for its operations, rendering it highly susceptible to hardware-based attacks. Why? Well, legacy systems are almost synonymous with “cybersecurity risk”. You do not need to be a cybersecurity expert to know that a legacy system, built with the security needs at the time in mind, cannot sufficiently protect against the threats of today. Cybersecurity threats evolve constantly, and it is already a struggle for IT departments to keep up in real-time. So, a system built X number of years ago, with an inability to be updated, is most definitely not going to be a force to be reckoned with for hardware attackers. Need I say more?
Technologically Integrated Environments
To modernize legacy systems and enhance productivity, organizations have adopted an integrated environment where IT, OT and IoT are interconnected. As a result, critical infrastructure is often dependent on cyber-physical systems, whereby the physical equipment and systems are digitally controlled. Yes, this does mean that a cyberattack can have direct physical consequences – just look at the Stuxnet attack.
With an environment that is becoming increasingly technologically integrated, an attackers’ job just got easier. Executing a hardware based attack necessitates a certain degree of physical proximity. And the integrated infrastructure allows the perpetrator to target the most accessible component as the point of infiltration and then move laterally throughout the entire network. It is even more worrying since some critical infrastructure, such as energy providers, deploy consumer-facing IoT devices that operate in less secure environments, making it easier to gain physical access.
Large Organization Challenges
Organizations that make up critical infrastructure are, typically, not small. Such entities perform critical operations and require extensive personnel and facilities to do so. Primarily, this means there are likely many assets within the enterprise. The more hardware assets an enterprise has, the more difficult it is to manage all of them. When it comes to hardware based attacks, asset management is imperative. If you cannot see an asset, then you cannot identify it as the source of malicious activity. Additionally, the more hardware assets an organization possesses, the greater the attack surface as there are more entry points for a bad actor.
Another risk associated with an organization’s size is the challenge of ensuring comprehensive physical layer visibility security. As hardware attacks require the perpetrator to gain physical access, physical security is the first layer of defense against such attacks. A hospital, for example, simply cannot have physical protection across the entire building. There will be areas where an attacker can quickly slip in and out without anyone noticing.
Finally, a large organization with many different departments might have a decentralized approach to cybersecurity. As a result, this can bring about inconsistencies in each department’s approach to cybersecurity. Insufficient security in one department puts the entire enterprise at risk due to its interconnectedness. Insufficient security in one department can expose the entire enterprise, highlighting the need for comprehensive hardware-based security. You are only as secure as your weakest link…
Adopting Zero Trust Principles to Combat Hardware-Based Attacks in Critical Infrastructure
The aforementioned risks are exacerbated by the trust typically vested in internal users and devices, which can be exploited by hardware based attacks. The assumption that those operating within the organization’s perimeters are trustworthy puts the enterprise in a vulnerable position to malicious activity originating from within. The automatic trust given to internal users provides them with extensive access to enterprise resources. This is especially worrying considering the integrated environment that is typical of critical infrastructure.
Adopting the Zero Trust model eliminates the component of trust as all users and devices need to be verified at every access request to enhance security. A Zero Trust Architecture is implemented through various measures, including micro-segmentation, whereby the network is split into more granular parts – each of which requires separate access approval. Micro-segmentation prevents lateral movement across the network, minimizing the extent of damage that an attacker can cause. Micro-segmentation is especially important to critical infrastructure due to its interconnected environment that makes lateral movement relatively effortless. Embracing Zero Trust Hardware Access in critical infrastructure is essential (Cyber Security of Critical Infrastructures).
Security Against Hardware-Based Attacks
However, to effectively implement a Zero Trust Architecture, organizations must attain comprehensive asset visibility. This is particularly important concerning hardware-based attacks. Hardware-based security involves identifying the true identity of all devices within the network. This identification helps prevent rogue devices from breaching security protocols. Rogue devices, as mentioned, are covert by nature. Whether a device is hiding or spoofing a legitimate one, an enterprise needs to overcome this visibility challenge. Without the ability to see the device or its true characteristics, the Zero Trust Architecture may grant access under false pretenses. A lack of visibility at the hardware level—Layer 1—means that organizations will struggle to enforce the Zero Trust model accurately. As a result, they will remain vulnerable to rogue device attacks. This highlights the importance of embracing Zero Trust principles in critical infrastructure and implementing Zero Trust Hardware Access, where physical layer visibility serves as the first line of defense.
Endpoint and Network Security
Sepio’s platform offers a remedy for the shortfall in device visibility, particularly when addressing hardware-based attacks. Sepio’s delivers physical layer visibility. Sepio makes all devices visible and reveals their true identity by validating the device’s Physical Layer information. Not just what it claims to be. Sepio’s policy enforcement mechanism enables Hardware Access Control by enforcing strict or more granular rules based on the device’s characteristics. Importantly, Sepio instantly detects any devices that breach the pre-set policy and automatically initiates a mitigation process to block them, preventing malicious actors from successfully carrying out an attack.
Securing Critical Infrastructure with Sepio
Sepio‘s brings the solution to effective Zero Trust adoption by significantly reducing an enterprise’s blind spots. With greater visibility, the Zero Trust Architecture can grant access decisions with complete information. Thus enhancing the enterprise’s protection within, and outside of, its traditional perimeters. The Hardware Access Control capabilities of the solution block Rogue Devices as soon as they detect them, stopping an attack at the first instance. Not even allowing such devices to make network access requests. Furthermore, Sepio supports data access policy development – which the Zero Trust Architecture relies on as a source of information – by enabling the creation of more valid policies based on complete asset visibility. So, while critical infrastructure protects the nation, Sepio is here to protect critical infrastructure. Embracing the principles of Zero Trust, coupled with Zero Trust Hardware Access, becomes paramount in fortifying critical infrastructure’s resilience against hardware based attacks.
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