Why East-West Network Visibility Matters for Electric Grid Security
Summary
The article explains how monitoring internal traffic can help grid operators detect lateral movement across IT and OT networks, and discusses NERC CIP-015 expectations and Trend Micro’s visibility and detection capabilities.
Key points
- Grid operators’ growing connections between OT, ICS, enterprise IT, and external partners can create pathways for attackers.
- Attackers may move laterally after an initial breach to map networks, escalate privileges, and reach operational systems.
- Monitoring east-west traffic can help identify abnormal communications that perimeter-focused monitoring may miss.
- OT-aware monitoring should account for protocols such as DNP3, IEC 61850, OPC, and Modbus to interpret activity in context.
- The article says NERC CIP-015 developments reinforce the need for monitoring communications within operational networks.
- Recommended priorities include identifying unknown devices, monitoring internal behavior, and reducing exposure from vendor connections.
- Trend Micro promotes its platform’s OT monitoring, anomaly detection, asset discovery, and investigation capabilities.
Article Details
- Topic
- East-west network traffic visibility for detecting lateral movement in electric grid and critical OT environments, including the role of NERC CIP-015 monitoring expectations.