Rob Hulsebos - OT Cybersecurity Challenges

Abstract

“OT” (Operations Technology) systems are all around us, but hardly ever noticed, while a failure in their operation could impact society or cripple companies. However, their cybersecurity lags behind, for various reasons and this has resulted in numerous hacks with major consequences far beyond the effort needed.

In this talk, we will discuss what “OT” is, the special challenges for this (often legacy) equipment, the lack of interest in cybersecurity both from vendors and users, the usage of network protocols and stacks from the previous century, the difficulty of patching equipment and what PLC programmers themselves can do. We will also highlight the “IEC-62443” standard, specially dedicated to industrial cybersecurity.

Biography

Graduated 1986, computer science, Eindhoven. Always been working in industrial machinery, PLC’s, etc. Specialised in the implementation of many industrial network protocols, Since 1993 active as freelance journalist for the Dutch trade press about current developments in networking and cybersecurity, wrote several books about it. Since 1998 active as teacher on these subjects. In 2010, assisted Symantec in decoding Stuxnet. As of 2018, am now working for Forescout (Eindhoven) OT Competence Center, developing detection of malwares and other unwanted operations in OT environments.

Spreker