Maximising productivity and minimising downtime are constant pressures for industrial operators in their quest for operational excellence. To accomplish this, a key strategy is to harness data’s potential by connecting more devices on the factory floor, from legacy machines to modern sensors.
However, this increased connectivity presents a significant challenge. Although it enhances efficiency through visibility, it also exposes critical operational assets to new cybersecurity risks. Furthermore, the complexity of managing this expanding network often falls on OT teams who are already struggling with limited personnel and resources.
The real test is to gain the advantages of a connected plant floor without sacrificing security or overloading your staff. By streamlining your industrial network operations, you can effectively achieve this balance. To help you get started, we will address three common questions about industrial network deployment and maintenance, exploring ways to achieve better control and visibility with more efficiency.
Question 1: A plant manager’s concern
“When a production line stops, every second counts. How can we empower our network administrators to diagnose and resolve network-related issues quickly?”
Minimising downtime is critical. The ability to quickly pinpoint and resolve the root cause is key. An effective response mechanism involves three core stages: detect, diagnose, and recover.
Instant detection: The process starts with immediate alerts. The moment abnormal activity is detected, your network administrators must receive notifications, enabling them to act without delay.
Accurate diagnostics: Once alerted, the team needs comprehensive event logs to find the root cause. These logs should include critical information such as device logins, configuration changes, and firmware updates.
Rapid recovery: After identifying the issue, swift recovery is essential. This requires secure and readily available backups of previous configurations to restore network functions quickly.
Manual handling of these steps is complex, but centralised network management software/NMS automates the entire process. It integrates these functions into a single platform, streamlining the response process. Furthermore, a key benefit of NMS is its ability to generate a visual network topology. You get an up to the minute overview of your network’s health, enabling regular status checks and proactive issue prevention that safeguards production.
Question 2: A control engineer’s dilemma
“The rise in cyberattacks is a major concern, but we worry that adding extra security measures will create operational uncertainty and disrupt our existing processes. How can we enhance network security without negatively impacting performance?”
The critical challenge lies in balancing security with operational continuity. Therefore, the key is to implement security measures that align with your specific needs, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Here are examples showing how to handle two different security requests.
For foundational security: If your goal is to prevent basic threats, like insider misuse or opportunistic attacks, start by deploying modern, secure network devices, especially for connecting legacy equipment. These devices can significantly enhance security with built-in features that require minimal operational changes:
Access control: Secure user authentication and login controls prevent unauthorised access.
Device hardening: Functions like rate limiting and login lockout strengthen the device itself against brute-force attacks.
For advanced security in larger operations: If you operate a larger plant and need to minimise the impact of a potential breach, employ network segmentation. Smaller, isolated zones can be created within your network by using network devices that support functions like VLAN, firewall or routing. Isolating a compromised machine prevents the problem from spreading to other production lines.
To ensure smooth operations, choose network devices supported by centralised NMS. This simplifies the configuration of these security settings and provides a complete, real-time overview of your devices and network status. This visibility gives you more control and significantly reduces the complexity of managing a secure network. Implementing robust security that doesn’t impede operational efficiency is possible through careful evaluation of your security requirements and the right solution choices.
Question 3: OT team leader’s reality
“We have limited resources and personnel to dedicate to cybersecurity. What do you recommend for maintaining network security efficiently under these constraints?”
When your team faces a heavy workload, they may feel overwhelmed by the ongoing cybersecurity tasks. Instead of more work or people, the solution lies in a strategy that uses the best tools and methods to boost your team’s effectiveness. Here’s a practical, three-step framework to achieve robust network security efficiently, even with limited resources.
Start with a clear picture: Gain full network visibility
You can’t protect what you can’t see. Achieving full network visibility is the primary and most essential prerequisite. Without an accurate, up-to-date understanding of connected assets, security efforts quickly become reactive and inefficient. Modern industrial networking solutions provide automated asset discovery and network topology visualisation, enabling your team to:
• Instantly identify all connected devices
• Understand communication paths and dependencies across the network
• Detect unauthorised or unexpected devices before they become risks
This foundational visibility allows small teams to focus their efforts where they matter most.
Work smarter, not harder: Centralise and automate
Once visibility is established, efficiency comes from reducing manual effort. Centralised management and automation allow teams with limited resources to greatly expand their capabilities. By adopting solutions with centralised network management software, your team can:
• Centrally manage configurations and firmware for network devices
• Apply consistent settings across hundreds of devices
• Rely on automated monitoring and alerts, rather than constant manual oversight
This approach allows your team to maintain strong security without scaling headcount.
Choose tools designed for your OT environment
The most efficient tools are those that integrate seamlessly into your team’s existing workflows. Industrial networks have unique characteristics such as specialised protocols, e.g., Modbus, PROFINET, and strict uptime requirements that differ from typical IT environments.
By selecting solutions designed specifically for OT, you gain several practical efficiencies:
• Reduced learning curve: Interfaces and terminology align with the way control engineers and plant managers already work, enabling faster adoption and fewer training demands.
• Operational safety: Security functions are engineered to operate without disrupting sensitive, real-time industrial processes, helping prevent unplanned downtime and production losses.
Start with visibility, reduce manual effort through automation, and use tools built for OT workflows. This approach enables reliable security without disrupting operations or overloading your team.
A practical guide to building secure and efficient industrial networks
Achieving both high uptime and strong cybersecurity is an ongoing challenge for modern industrial operators, given their limited resources. Rather than increasing complexity, you should focus on visibility and control as the network’s core.
Moxa designs its industrial networking solutions with this principle in mind. We believe that secure and efficient industrial networks start at the device level. This explains how our managed switches, secure routers, and industrial firewalls deliver device-level visibility and control, enabling operators to monitor network events and maintain traceable records.
MXview One network management software centralises and makes visibility and control actionable when it manages these devices. From a single dashboard, teams can monitor network health, deploy policies, and respond to incidents efficiently, reducing manual effort while maintaining consistent and reliable operations.
For more information contact RJ Connect,
| Tel: | +27 11 781 0777 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.rjconnect.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about RJ Connect |
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