Why BlastShield's Zero-Trust Security Is the Future of Safeguarding Outdated Industrial Systems

As the digital landscape rapidly evolves, industrial organizations across various sectors face a significant challenge in safeguarding outdated industrial systems.

Security leaders face the daunting task of protecting aging infrastructure, with vulnerabilities posing a risk at every turn.

This blog post will explore the innovative advantages of BlastShield's zero trust security and how it helps industrial organizations overcome the unique challenges of securing legacy systems in today's high-stakes cyber environment.

The risks and challenges of retaining old industrial systems

Industrial systems that are too old and can no longer be updated to address current security risks make industrial organizations easy targets for attackers. Manufacturing companies, for one, typically offer support for legacy software and hardware for up to 10 years. Plant safety becomes a concern when these systems become vulnerable.

Many organizations retain legacy systems due to various factors, such as ongoing projects, resistance to change, high costs of modernization, implementation time, training requirements, and data migration challenges.

Although retaining outdated industrial systems is necessary sometimes, their inherent vulnerabilities and incompatibility with contemporary security solutions make them increasingly challenging to secure.

Like modern systems, legacy systems are prone to several cybersecurity threats, including targeted attacks, ransomware, and industrial espionage. Attackers often use the "kill chain" method, which involves multiple stages of compromising a system. Legacy systems and their known vulnerabilities offer easy targets for each stage of this process.

Embrace the zero-trust paradigm

BlastShield provides a specific solution for securing and protecting legacy industrial systems that are often outdated and “unpatchable”, posing a critical challenge for many industrial organizations.

Here are the key reasons why BlastShield's zero-trust security is the right solution for protecting industrial systems and networks that use a mix of old and modern systems.

1. Prevents attacks before they happen

BlastShield implements its zero-trust network access (ZTNA) solution by following the "never trust, always verify" principle. This approach guarantees that every user, equipment, machine, and device undergoes authentication and authorization processes before being granted network access. Eliminating the assumption of trust for any entity within the network, whether old or modern, can significantly reduce the risk of threats.

2. Granular access control

BlastShield ZTNA provides granular access control, allowing organizations to limit user access to specific resources and applications based on their role, location, and other factors. This fine-grained control enables companies to minimize the potential impact of a security breach in a hybrid industrial environment and better protect sensitive information.

3.Real-time monitoring and response

BlastShield’s zero-trust security enables real-time monitoring and response to potential threats by continuously evaluating the risk associated with user and device behavior. By identifying unusual activity and taking appropriate action, BlastShield can help organizations quickly detect and respond to threats targeting legacy and modern systems.

4.Improved data protection

BlastShield ensures the security of sensitive information by encrypting it both at rest and in transit, protecting against potential breaches of the network. By implementing strong encryption and segmentation, BlastShield provides an additional layer of protection for data stored in or transmitted between legacy and modern systems.

5.Scalable security for hybrid environments

BlastShield is highly scalable and can be adapted to meet the unique needs of organizations with a mix of old and modern systems. This flexibility allows companies to implement zero-trust security in stages, gradually enhancing their security posture without causing disruptions to existing operations or investments.

As the future of industrial security shifts towards innovative solutions that address the unique challenges of outdated systems, BlastShield's zero-trust security emerges as the ideal choice for organizations seeking to enhance outdated industrial systems.

By embracing the zero-trust paradigm, simplifying the security stack, and offering comprehensive protection for both legacy and modern industrial systems, BlastShield provides unparalleled protection for critical infrastructure in a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

To see how BlastShield's zero-trust security can protect your organization's systems, request a demo today using this link.

Experience BlastShield's zero-trust solution firsthand with our free trial. Click here to get started.