Secure Infrastructure for OT Networks
Protecting the critical infrastructure that powers nations worldwide is not just a big task; it’s crucial. Too many people have given up on protecting their OT assets and are content to monitor them to see when something goes wrong. However, the potential risks are too high to be complacent. Zero Trust for OT is crucial and should be prioritized since the return on mitigation is so high.
OT Networks with BlastWave
BlastWave’s OT Zero Trust Protection solution addresses critical security and operational challenges while driving cost efficiencies. BlastWave offers three key “never trust, always verify” technologies to protect critical infrastructure OT networks:
Network Cloaking:
Network Cloaking ensures that critical yet outdated legacy infrastructure becomes invisible to external threats. Rather than just obfuscating these systems, they do not appear in any scans or probes from a hacker.
With BlastShield, network operators ensure security and compliance with industry standards and guidance like NIST 800-53, 800-207 (Zero Trust), and IEC 62443. AI-enhanced reconnaissance tools cannot probe into the internal workings of a facility because they have no path to reach the internal OT networks.
OT Secure Remote Access:
BlastShield provides OT Secure Remote Access to critical OT systems, ensuring operators and 3rd party contractors can monitor and manage them without exposing them to cyber threats. BlastShield’s phishing-resistant MFA biometric authentication protects against GenAI-powered phishing attacks and MFA hijacking. A full mesh of P2P encrypted tunnels is created to secure traffic from remote users to the network and any agent-enabled systems, protecting against Man-inthe-middle attacks.
Network Segmentation (Microsegmentation):
BlastShield simplifies the challenge of microsegmentation by creating software defined segments operating at both Layer Two and Layer Three, resulting in a secure infrastructure that operates as a single, cohesive policy infrastructure regardless of location or device type.
IT and OT network staff and temporary contractors are permitted access to only the systems they are responsible for, and privileges can be granted and revoked in real-time. BlastShield prevents lateral movement by Secure Remote Access users within the network and can even provide lateral movement protection at Layer 2 for local network connections.
Stop attackers before they even know what you have. Network cloaking makes your critical OT systems invisible to cyber threats. Think of it as a digital force field: hackers can’t find what they can’t see. This means less risk of costly downtime, fewer security breaches, and more peace of mind. By eliminating reconnaissance, you dramatically reduce the attack surface, allowing your operations to run smoothly and your team to focus on what matters most, not constant fire drills. Simply put, cloaking protects your assets, saves money, and keeps operations uninterrupted.
%202.svg)
Network Cloaking as a Digital Shield In a network environment, if you can’t see an OT system, you can’t hack or attack it. Network cloaking is industry’s best opportunity to prevent hacks. IT/OT administrators cannot patch legacy systems; zero-day vulnerabilities are even in VPN products.
BlastShield cloaks the network to make it invisible to hackers, providing a layer of defense that is impossible with firewall or VPN solutions today. BlastShield protects against inbound attacks, lateral movements, and diverse cyber threats, including stolen credentials and malware delivery, enhancing operational integrity.
With BlastShield, crucial components like workstations and building management systems remain uninterrupted and secure from outside threats.
Challenge Met: Eliminate the Ability of Attackers to Exploit a Zero Day Vulnerability
Network cloaking addresses the technical challenge of reconnaissance by fundamentally altering the network’s address space and visibility. Instead of relying on traditional IP address-based routing, cloaking technology utilizes dynamic, ephemeral identifiers and overlays.
This means that standard network scanning tools, used by attackers for reconnaissance, return no results. Critical OT devices are effectively hidden, typically exposed through static IP addresses and open ports. The network appears as a “dark space” to unauthorized users, preventing them from mapping the network topology or identifying vulnerable assets. Furthermore, cloaking requires pre-authenticated communication to reveal any network services.
This combination of address obfuscation, dynamic identifiers, and pre-authentication effectively eliminates the ability of attackers to perform successful reconnaissance, thus significantly reducing the attack surface.
The Ideal World: Cloak to meet business needs
In an ideal, cloaked OT network, hackers are met with an impenetrable digital void. They initiate scans, probing for vulnerabilities, but find nothing. Their reconnaissance tools return empty results, leaving them utterly blind. Critical control systems, legacy devices, and sensitive data are effectively removed from the attack surface, hidden behind layers of dynamic, ephemeral identifiers.
How we do it:
Network cloaking aims to obscure the presence and characteristics of an OT network, making it signifi cantly harder for attackers to gather information during reconnaissance phases. The key technologies for Network Cloaking are:
Network Address Translation (NAT):
Implementation: Deploy BlastShield to perform cloaking and hide the internal IP address space and topology from external view
Configuration:
Benefit: Prevents direct scanning and enumeration of internal OT devices.
Dynamic DNS and IP Address Overlay:
Implementation: Employ dynamic DNS services and IP address overlays to change the network’s external appearance and force all traffi c through the BlastShield gateway.
Configuration:
Benefit: It makes it difficult for attackers to maintain a consistent network view.
Zero Trust Encrypted Remote Access:
Implementation: Force all remote access to the OT network through authenticated, passwordless, and encrypted VPN tunnels.
Configuration:
Benefit: Hides the OT network behind an encrypted tunnel, and requires authentication for access.
Important Considerations:
OT Protocol Awareness: Ensure that any security measures do not interfere with legitimate OT protocol traffic.
Performance Impact: Evaluate the performance impact of network cloaking techniques on OT network operations.
Maintenance: Regularly update security confi gurations and monitor for suspicious activity. Defense in Depth: Network cloaking should be part of a layered security approach.
Testing: Regularly test the effectiveness of networkcloaking techniques.
By implementing these configurations, organizations can significantly reduce the visibility of their OT networks to attackers, making reconnaissance more difficult and time-consuming, and increasing the overall security posture
A Zero Trust gateway creates a “virtual air gap to protect unpatchable legacy OT devices. It acts as a strict gatekeeper, verifying every connection and only allowing authorized traffic. This isolates your old gear from cyber threats, like a physical air gap, but without disrupting operations. It’s a secure, software-defined barrier, keeping hackers out and your critical systems running.
Challenge Met: Virtual Patching for Unpatchable OT Devices
Zero-day vulnerabilities in unpatchable OT devices pose a critical threat. While traditional patching is impossible, virtual air gaps and network cloaking offer a powerful, proactive defense, effectively acting as a “virtual patch.” By making these devices invisible to unauthorized users and external threats, network cloaking eliminates the attack surface, preventing exploitation even if a zero-day vulnerability exists. The devices are hidden in plain sight, accessible only to verified, authorized users.
Simultaneously, the virtual air gap, created by a Zero Trust gateway, enforces strict access control, verifying every connection before allowing traffic to reach the protected devices.
This prevents unauthorized access and limits the potential impact of a successful exploit, even if an attacker discovers a zero-day. Essentially, these technologies create a protective barrier, isolating the vulnerable devices from the outside world and minimizing their exposure to potential attacks. They provide a layer of security that operates independently of the device’s inherent vulnerabilities, buying critical time until a permanent patch or replacement can be implemented.
The Ideal World: Cloaked and Segmented Virtual Air Gaps
Imagine creating a virtual air gap, a secure isolation zone, for your vulnerable legacy OT devices, without physically disconnecting them. Network cloaking achieves just that. By rendering these unpatchable systems invisible to unauthorized users and external threats, cloaking effectively simulates the security benefits of an air gap, but without the operational limitations.
Simultaneously, the virtual air gap, created by a Zero Trust gateway, enforces strict access control, verifying every connection before allowing traffic to reach the protected devices.
This prevents unauthorized access and limits the potential impact of a successful exploit, even if an attacker discovers a zero-day. Essentially, these technologies create a protective barrier, isolating the vulnerable devices from the outside world and minimizing their exposure to potential attacks. They provide a layer of security that operates independently of the device’s inherent vulnerabilities, buying critical time until a permanent patch or replacement can be implemented.
BlastWave delivers a comprehensive Zero Trust Network Protection solution to provide the best possible outcome for OT environments. With a unique combination of network cloaking, secure remote access, and software-defined microsegmentation, we minimize the attack surface, eliminate passwords, and enable segmentation without network downtime.
To learn more, come to www.blastwave.com
BlastWave securely connects Industrial Control Systems, Operational Technology, and Critical Infrastructure networks with Zero Trust Protection and delivers industrial-grade cybersecurity with consumer-grade ease-of-use.
Learn how BlastShield™ delivers simple, effective, and cost-efficient Zero Trust OT cybersecurity for upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas systems.
Our Privacy Policy applies.
Getting started with BlastShield is easy and free. Follow the three steps below and get up and running fast.
%20(1).svg)
Create a Free Trial
Account
.svg)
Download the BlastShield Authenticator & Client
.svg)
Make Your Host Invisible
In Minutes
.svg)
Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | © 2025 BlastWave, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More Info
