Removable Media Protection

In 2010 a virus known as Stuxnet was released into a nuclear facility in Iran, which spread across the globe rapidly. Targeting industrial control systems and intending to cause major devastation, the worm infected 200,000 computers and caused 1,000 machines to physically degrade. Stuxnet was unknowingly passed around thousands of networks via USB drive. Cyber security experts claim that the attack could have caused a nuclear disaster, all because one removable media device was infected.

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Removable media remains a prominent threat to industrial control systems today:

• 37% of threats are specifically designed to utilise removable media.

• 79% of all cyber threats originating from removable media can lead to critical business disruption in OT environments.

• 30% of all USB-based threats are designed solely for industrial use or associated with industrial cyber-attack campaigns.

• A 30% increase has been noticed in the use of USB devices in manufacturing facilities, showcasing OT’s growing reliance on removable media technology.
   

*This data was obtained from Honeywell’s Industrial Cybersecurity USB Threat Report 2021.

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Organisations must therefore ensure that they are actively addressing the risks posed to their OT environments by removable media.

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M.A.C. Solutions have partnered with multiple vendors to provide a host of removable media protection products, namely removable media scanners that sanitise your devices prior to plugging them into your network. The scanners also enable you to detect zero-day threats on removable media devices and block unscanned devices from connecting to your environment.