There have been a lot of different stories about how companies have been hacked and dealt with the ramifications of cyber attacks. With the increase in the integration of smart building technologies, it’s become more important than ever before to focus on threat prevention for business owners. Mitigating these sophisticated attacks can be a very difficult thing to do. Not only must they be identified, but they also must be eliminated. Throughout this article, you will learn more about maintaining good cybersecurity and how to effectively protect the building’s systems and everyone in it from becoming victims of these attacks.
- Consolidate Any Remote Access
The majority of smart buildings usually have air-gapped networks. A lot of the building’s networks are physically disparate. This essentially means that it is impossible to send out data from a single network to another. To do so, you need an independent remote access entry point. These things can typically be done through remote access connectivity including using things like a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This essentially means you have to deal with more remote access policies than you would normally have to. Thus, it’s best to consolidate them to keep them easier to manage.
- Secure The Zones
Even when you do go ahead and you consolidate the networks, you’ll find that the different systems will continue to remain separated. The purpose of this is to minimize any lateral movement if there is a breach that occurs. This helps to maximize cybersecurity and helps one gain control of everything. The majority of IP networks nowadays come with fairly sophisticated firewalls that are Layer 4 to 7. This is excellent because the firewalls can effectively identify the different types of traffic stemming from the various pockets. The existing firewalls can be used whenever you are creating different logical security zones. These zones can restrict communication from zone to zone. This will inherently reduce the cybersecurity risk because it will reduce an intruder from being able to freely move as they wish within the network. Because there is less they can move around, which makes it easier to spot them.
- Monitoring The Threats
You need to have maximum visibility when it comes to looking at the sensors and endpoints. It’s necessary because it can help you when it comes to maintaining optimal security posture. When you have IT or OT devices that have been compromised, they will begin talking to the botnet servers which will show that there has been a device that has been compromised. Whenever you don’t have anything that can alert you to these threats, you’ll continue to have the hacked devices looking at and moving around your network for a long time. This alone can cause irreparable damage to your networks and systems.
To mitigate this, you will need to have a lot of security visibility. You need to have high-end systems in place. A Network Detection and Response (NDR) system is the best monitoring platform that can help you monitor your systems better. Having an optimized security tool like this will help to ensure that you can have it monitor your network to see if there are any issues that it spots. The system will organize all of the data going in and out of your network. Once the system has established a baseline for the data, it can use Artificial Intelligence to identify threats or if there has been a full-blown breach in the network. It has data that it can use to see if there have been major changes to communication from devices within the network.
- Continue Patching
You need to be patching your systems at all times. You need to continue to maintain and monitor your systems. It’s good that there’s an existing security feature around the perimeter like a firewall, there’s still a risk that a bad actor gets in and accesses the applications internally. They can then control things like security or even your central air unit. This can make it easier for them to access the building’s LAN and even the entire system. Thus, you need to stay on top of all of the different security updates and patches that get pushed out for all of your hardware and software. Anything that doesn’t get updated with security holes can become a weak point in your system.
- Monitoring and Restricting Access
There is plenty of different hardware and software that have been introduced to the smart building space. This includes IoT sensors, security systems, door controllers, and more. All of these things require maintenance and management. A lot of the platforms that exist will allow you to create usernames and passwords to gain admin control. This can end up leading to losing your password, getting it stolen, or more. It’s easier to deal with this kind of risk when you have a centralized user and authentication server. What is most used for these accounts is either Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) or Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS). With these things, you can easily create accounts and access controls where you can define who can and can’t communicate with different systems.
When it comes to maintaining optimal cybersecurity, it’s not all about eliminating risks. It’s more about understanding the risks and figuring out how to close the gaps that can make it easier to minimize them. When you look at the low-hanging fruit of a smart building, you can better protect the property from cyberattacks and bad actors. Use these tips above and you can keep the smart building and its occupants safer from cyberattacks.
Also Read: 6 Important Cybersecurity Tips For Software Developers
