BlastWave Use Cases: Prevent Reconaissance

TLDR: You Can’t Attack What You Can’t See

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.

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: Segment 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.

Attempts to establish unauthorized connections are met with silence. No open ports, no responding services, no visible network topology. The network behaves as if it doesn't exist, rendering traditional attack vectors useless. Even sophisticated AI-powered reconnaissance tools are thwarted, unable to penetrate the cloaked environment.

Operators, meanwhile, work seamlessly. Authorized users, with their verified BlastShield clients, access the network effortlessly, their connections authenticated and their activity monitored. Legacy systems, once a security liability, now operate safely, shielded from external threats. The OT environment runs smoothly, efficiently, and securely, free from the constant threat of cyberattacks. Downtime is minimized, productivity is maximized, and peace of mind is restored. The network, protected by cloaking, becomes an invisible fortress, safeguarding critical infrastructure and ensuring uninterrupted operations.

How We do It:

Network Cloaking for OT Network Reconnaissance Protection

Network cloaking aims to obscure the presence and characteristics of an OT network, making it significantly harder for attackers to gather information during reconnaissance phases.

Key Technologies for Network Cloaking:

Port Address Translation (PAT) and Network Address Translation (NAT)

Implementation: Deploy BlastShield to perform cloaking and hide the internal IP address space and topology from external view.
Configuration:
- Deploy in the OT DMZ with a Zero Trust Configuration
- Block all external connections from the OT network except authorized users
- If an OT device needs to talk to specific servers or services, create a secure connection between the devices to prevent session hijacking
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 traffic through the BlastShield gateway.
Configuration:
- Use dynamic DNS to map external hostnames to overlay IP addresses.
- Utilize the BlastShield client for encrypted tunnels with the BlastShield gateway to enable access to OT endpoints.‍
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:
- Implement passwordless multi-factor authentication for secure access.
- Ensure all communications are encrypted.
- Segment Zero Trust access based on roles.
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 configurations and monitor for suspicious activity.
Defense in Depth: Network cloaking should be part of a layered security approach.
Testing: Regularly test the effectiveness of network cloaking 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.

Prevent Reconnaissance