The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) has joined the Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD's ACSC) and the following international partners in releasing cyber security guidance on isolating vital operational technology (OT) systems:
- New Zealand's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-NZ)
- United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK)
- United States' Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
- United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
State-sponsored cyber actors are targeting critical infrastructure (CI) to conduct espionage and pre-position for cyber attacks. CI organizations can strengthen resilience against escalating cyber threats by preparing to isolate vital OT and enabling systems from the Internet and other networks for an extended period. This can help ensure essential services continue even if corporate networks are compromised.
This joint guidance promotes a shift from reactive defence to proactive resilience, using physical isolation to limit threat actors' access and maintain operational continuity during crises.
It also explains the steps OT owners, operators and cyber defenders must take to physically isolate critical OT and enabling systems from all other networks. It sets out a clear, graduated implementation path for isolation:
- Identify critical systems, networks and customers
- Identify common levels of criticality and trust
- Map connections and potential isolation points
- Build effective separation and isolation points
Consult the full joint publication: Advice for isolating vital systems
The Cyber Centre encourages Canadian cyber operators and leadership in CI sectors to initiate the onboarding process with our agency at contact@cyber.gc.ca. Doing so will help to establish a streamlined point of contact for receiving relevant cyber security information, guidance and support.