Secure access is more important than ever to balance productivity demands and increased regulatory pressure. Compound this fact with the growing risk landscape among cyber-physical systems (CPS) and it’s clear that organizations must have a handle on whether their secure access strategy is adequately protecting their OT assets.
With more regulations aimed at driving organizations across industries towards a Zero Trust framework, defining secure access maturity is a helpful benchmark to see what steps must be taken to improve your organization’s secure access practices and policies while pinpointing specific areas for improvement. The stakes of costly downtime or risks of a cyber attack make it worthwhile to evaluate your current level of maturity. The OT domain in particular introduces complexities beyond typical IT secure access challenges that make CPS-based solutions a necessity.
As your organization evaluates its level of secure access maturity, consider which solutions and strategies must be adopted to advance and what it will take to get there. By working in tandem with a CPS-tailored solution like Claroty xDome Secure Access, it’s possible to not only advance to the next level but reach your goal of achieving full maturity.
What is Secure Access Maturity?
Secure access maturity is a means of evaluating your organization’s proficiency in secure access policies and procedures. The levels of secure access maturity build upon the prior level through a progression of adopting or establishing a set of practices that reduces risk and offers greater security with the ultimate aim of achieving Zero Trust access.
Knowing which stage of the journey your organization is in on your way to achieving secure access maturity is critical to understanding what more you need to do to reach Zero Trust and allows you to understand the risks associated with your current level.
Advancing Through the Five Levels of Secure Access Maturity
Secure Access Maturity Level 1
At the first level of secure access maturity, your organization is just starting out by gathering information based on what each individual person in your organization needs. In this stage, your organization likely has no remote access strategy and no plans for securing a user’s access to endpoints. For example, any user can gain access through means like a password, but your organization is not able to distinguish the identity of the person who gained access nor track when or what they did once access was granted.
With no strategy in place, your organization is the most vulnerable to attack at Level 1. Even worse, there are no systems in place to pinpoint how, when, by who an attack started and exactly what the scope of the attack was.
How Claroty Manages Level 1
Claroty is able to meet organizations where they are, even when starting at Level 1 with little to no secure access strategy for CPS. By outlining the risks associated with an unsecure network and lack of identification methods for remote users, xDome Secure Access delivers the tools necessary to advance to Level 2 and beyond.
Secure Access Maturity Level 2
In Level 2 several preliminary precautions are taken by defining user access, identifying users on the network and endpoints, and introducing verifications. In addition to adding these initial steps, security processes are documented for the organization to repeat and follow by all team members. At Level 2, however, there is the chance that disconnect remains between IT and OT teams, leading to gaps in protection.
The complexities present in CPS environments make these types of gaps inevitable without proper precautions. Understanding the need for CPS-specific solutions at this stage is imperative for advancement to the next levels of maturity.
How Claroty xDome Manages Level 2
By analyzing and building upon your organization’s current processes, xDome is designed to fill in the gaps on your security team. Designed for the OT domain, xDome aims to increase productivity while reducing complexity. By identifying and facilitating access to assets that require connections through entitlement-based policies, xDome provides the foundation of identification and verification with minimal risk.
Secure Access Maturity Level 3
While organizations at Level 2 are still making sure secure access practices are adopted across the enterprise, those at Level 3 have standardized processes that are documented and followed, eliminating the gaps found in Level 2. Identities are granted specific access-level capabilities, which are key to limiting what these users can accomplish on the network. With security procedures practiced organization-wide and greater access control, those at Level 3 are much more likely to instigate a proactive response to security breaches.
How Claroty xDome Manages Level 3
At Level 3 your organization has successfully eliminated many of the risks associated with practices at Level 1 and 2, yet there are opportunities for additional authorizations to tighten security. xDome applies least-privilege access policies that aim to reduce the attack surface and strengthen network resilience against threats coming either internally or externally. By managing privileged credentials with third-party users and assigning access privileges for different assets, xDome enhances security across your organization’s most sensitive assets.
Secure Access Maturity Level 4
Well on your way to achieving Zero Trust, Level 4 adds more user authentications than Level 3, ensuring all security controls are measured, managed, and monitored by your organization. At Level 4 multi-factor authentication is necessary to gain access to the network or an asset rather than just one level, like a password. With comprehensive network access control, multi-level authentication, and standardized reinforcement of security policies, Level 4 lowers threat levels and minimizes risk. Analytical tools report on security controls statistics, setting the stage for the final level.
How Claroty xDome Manages Level 4
Claroty xDome integrates with existing Identity Providers (IdPs) to offer Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). This includes Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) options that seek to prevent theft of credentials or unauthorized access. By seamlessly integrating with IdPs and Access Management (IAM) solutions, xDome reduces complexity and streamlines on-demand remote access.
Secure Access Maturity Level 5
The peak of secure access maturity is Level 5 in which Zero Trust has been achieved. This means that when a user gains access, all activity during the session is logged including when and what they did. Users are only permitted to perform actions necessary to their role through tight control of user connections, which also means that any suspicious behavior can lead to immediate termination of access. What makes Level 5 different from Level 4 is an emphasis on continually analyzing and optimizing secure access processes through analytics tools.
How Claroty xDome Manages Level 5
Claroty xDome Secure Access aims to advance organizations to Level 5, setting new standards for resilience and operational security in the CPS landscape. Through robust visibility capabilities and enhanced asset security management, xDome identifies and configures access to assets that require remote connections through entitlement-based policies in line with Zerto Trust principles.
Achieve Secure Access Maturity with Claroty xDome Secure Access
After identifying which level your organization is currently at on the road to secure access maturity, the natural response is to evaluate the best solution to achieve maturity. Claroty xDome Secure Access is tailored to CPS environments that works to realize the following outcomes:
Increase Productivity: Designed for the OT domain, xDome Secure Access provides access for both first and third party users while reducing Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), leading to faster issue resolution.
Minimize Risk: Strong security controls protect your organization’s OT systems against unauthorized access and identity risks by utilizing a Zero Trust framework further enhanced by PAM capabilities and IGA functionality.
Reduce Complexity: Scalable architecture reduces administrative complexity, allowing your organization to seamlessly operate both on-premises and in the cloud while taking into consideration the unique requirements of the OT environment.
Maintain Compliance: Comply with ever-changing regulatory requirements for secure access by effectively managing the identity lifecycle across the CPS landscape, accounting for the real-time logging and auditing of user identities.
Secure access is a critical part of maintaining operational success and cyber resilience. Taking the time to understand the level your current organization is at and how to advance your secure access maturity is an essential part of protecting your CPS assets.
To gain a better understanding of how Claroty xDome Secure Access works with organizations like yours to achieve Level 5 secure access maturity, speak with a member of our team today.
