Mandiant on Low-Sophistication OT Attacks

Mandiant Threat Intelligence Senior Manager Nathan Brubaker joins the Aperture Podcast to discuss the growing trend of low-sophistication attacks targeting operational technology and industrial control systems.

Nathan coauthored a recent Mandiant report on the subject, identifying a number of trends worth monitoring as industrial enterprises continue to connect OT to the internet and converge IT and OT systems internally. 

Attackers are exploiting connectivity to sometimes interact with industrial processes, but more often to capitalize financially on their access through ransomware, or to gather information about exposed assets that can be shared or sold. 

Nathan also discusses some of the commodity tools attackers are using to compromise control systems and industrial assets, and what organizations can do to lock down OT systems and reduce risk to industrial processes.