Plant equipment (OT): what it is and how it is attacked
Machinery that runs a physical process: a pump, a valve, a production line.
Also known as
- OT
- ICS
- SCADA
- operational technology
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
Failure here has physical consequences, and the equipment often cannot be patched or taken offline.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Reached through the ordinary office network
- Protocols that were designed with no authentication at all
What reduces it
- Keep a filtering point between the office network and the plant network, and know every path across it
- Where the equipment cannot be patched, control what can reach it instead
- Treat protocols with no authentication as requiring the network to provide it
Where it sits
- Group
- Endpoints and devices · The things people and processes touch directly.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- plant-equipment
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in endpoints and devices
- Desktop computerworkstation · PC · desktopA computer somebody sits at to do their job.
- Laptopnotebook · mobile workstationA portable computer that leaves the building.
- Mobile phonesmartphone · mobile · handsetA pocket computer that reads company email.
- PrinterMFP · multifunction device · copierPrints, scans and often emails documents.
- Smart deviceIoT · internet of things · connected device · camera · CCTV · IP camera · security camera · sensor · door lock · smart TVEveryday equipment with a network connection: cameras, sensors, door locks, TVs.
- Machine controllerPLC · RTU · programmable logic controllerThe small computer that tells a piece of machinery what to do.
- Door access readercard reader · badge reader · access controlReads a badge to unlock a door.
The endpoints and devices group lists all 8 of them side by side.
Plant equipment on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type OT. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker