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moreCyber security incidents are continuing to grow exponentially globally. Pharma companies have rushed to find vaccines and have stepped up efforts to manufacture these in large numbers to meet global demand. Unfortunately, cyber criminals have also realised this and are now ramping up attacks on healthcare.
Operational Technology (OT) is key to automating and driving efficiencies within the manufacturing process. However, if this OT is not adequately secured as discussed in this article, it makes the entire manufacturing process vulnerable to cyber attacks. 
Hospitals, Aged Care facilities, and Medical practices are also potentially vulnerable as all connected medical devices are classified as either OT or Information Technology (IT).
OT environments can be seen as a soft underbelly as they have not had the cyber security attention as their IT cousins have had. We are now confronted with an everincreasing dilemma that IT and OT environments are converging leading to security vulnerabilities traversing from one to the other. OT devices are proliferating which naturally increases the attack surface. Furthermore, OT devices have not always been designed with cyber security in mind or run by cyber security professionals, thus making them even more vulnerable. Since OT devices control production systems, any outages can be devastating.
This relative immaturity of cyber security for OT environments represents a challenge, but also an opportunity.
It not too difficult to secure OT environments if we just focus on the basics. This is where the IEC 62443 standard come into play. For those that deal with OT environments in the healthcare sector, this is a necessary read. The points that I will make below are in essence a summary of the controls you will find within this standard. Please note that this paper will examine cybersecurity requirements for Ethernet based networks. Elements connected using serial-based interfaces are not considered in the scope of the document.
