Control what traffic is monitored
Sensors automatically perform deep packet detection for IT and OT traffic and resolve information about network devices, such as device attributes and behavior. Several tools are available to control the type of traffic that each sensor detects.
Analytics and self-learning engines
Engines identify security issues via continuous monitoring and five analytics engines that incorporate self-learning to eliminate the need for updating signatures or defining rules. The engines use ICS-specific behavioral analytics and data science to continuously analyze OT network traffic for anomalies. The five engines are:
Protocol violation detection: Identifies the use of packet structures and field values that violate ICS protocol specifications.
Policy violation detection: Identifies policy violations such as unauthorized use of function codes, access to specific objects, or changes to device configuration.
Industrial malware detection: Identifies behaviors that indicate the presence of known malware such as Conficker, Black Energy, Havex, WannaCry, and NotPetya.
Anomaly detection: Detects unusual machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and behaviors. By modeling ICS networks as deterministic sequences of states and transitions, the engine uses a patented technique called Industrial Finite State Modeling (IFSM). The solution requires a shorter learning period than generic mathematical approaches or analytics, which were originally developed for IT rather than OT. It also detects anomalies faster, with minimal false positives.
Operational incident detection: Identifies operational issues such as intermittent connectivity that can indicate early signs of equipment failure.
Learning and Smart IT Learning modes
The Learning mode instructs your sensor to learn your network's usual activity. Examples are devices discovered in your network, protocols detected in the network, file transfers between specific devices, and more. This activity becomes your network baseline.
The Learning mode is automatically enabled after installation and will remain enabled until turned off. The approximate learning mode period is between two to six weeks, depending on the network size and complexity. After this period, when the learning mode is disabled, any new activity detected will trigger alerts. Alerts are triggered when the policy engine discovers deviations from your learned baseline.
After the learning period is complete and the Learning mode is disabled, the sensor might detect an unusually high level of baseline changes that are the result of normal IT activity, such as DNS and HTTP requests. The activity is called nondeterministic IT behavior. The behavior might also trigger unnecessary policy violation alerts and system notifications. To reduce the amount of these alerts and notifications, you can enable the Smart IT Learning function.
When Smart IT Learning is enabled, the sensor tracks network traffic that generates nondeterministic IT behavior based on specific alert scenarios.
The sensor monitors this traffic for seven days. If it detects the same nondeterministic IT traffic within the seven days, it continues to monitor the traffic for another seven days. When the traffic isn't detected for a full seven days, Smart IT Learning is disabled for that scenario. New traffic detected for that scenario will only then generate alerts and notifications.
Working with Smart IT Learning helps you reduce the number of unnecessary alerts and notifications caused by noisy IT scenarios.
If your sensor is controlled by the on-premises management console, you can't disable the learning modes. In cases like this, the learning mode can only be disabled from the management console.
The learning capabilities (Learning and Smart IT Learning) are enabled by default.
To enable or disable learning:
- Select System settings > Network monitoring > Detection Engines and Network Modeling.
- Enable or disable the Learning and Smart IT Learning options.
Configure subnets
Subnet configurations affect how you see devices in the device map.
By default, the sensor discovers your subnet setup and populates the Subnet Configuration dialog box with this information.
To enable focus on the OT devices, IT devices are automatically aggregated by subnet in the device map. Each subnet is presented as a single entity on the map, including an interactive collapsing/expanding capability to "drill down" into an IT subnet and back.
When you're working with subnets, select the ICS subnets to identify the OT subnets. You can then focus the map view on OT and ICS networks and collapse to a minimum the presentation of IT network elements. This effort reduces the total number of the devices shown on the map and provides a clear picture of the OT and ICS network elements.
You can change the configuration or change the subnet information manually by exporting the discovered data, changing it manually, and then importing back the list of subnets that you manually defined. For more information about export and import, see Import device information.
In some cases, such as environments that use public ranges as internal ranges, you can instruct the sensor to resolve all subnets as internal subnets by selecting the Do Not Detect Internet Activity option. When you select that option:
Public IP addresses will be treated as local addresses.
No alerts will be sent about unauthorized internet activity, which reduces notifications and alerts received on external addresses.
To configure subnets:
On the side menu, select System Settings.
Select Basic, and then select Subnets.
To add subnets automatically when new devices are discovered, keep the Auto Subnets Learning checkbox selected.
To resolve all subnets as internal subnets, select Resolve all internet traffic as internal/private. Public IPs will be treated as private local addresses. No alerts will be sent about unauthorized internet activity.
Select Add subnet and define the following parameters for each subnet:
- The subnet IP address.
- The subnet mask address.
- The subnet name. We recommend that you name each subnet with a meaningful name that you can easily identify, so you can differentiate between IT and OT networks. The name can be up to 60 characters.
To mark this subnet as an OT subnet, select ICS Subnet.
To present the subnet separately when you're arranging the map according to the Purdue level, select Segregated.
To delete all subnets, select Clear All.
To export configured subnets, select Export. The subnet table is downloaded to your workstation.
Select Save.
Importing information
To import subnet information, select Import and select a CSV file to import. The subnet information is updated with the information that you imported. If you import an empty field, you'll lose your data.
Detection engines
Self-learning analytics engines eliminate the need for updating signatures or defining rules. The engines use ICS-specific behavioral analytics and data science to continuously analyze OT network traffic for anomalies, malware, operational problems, protocol violations, and baseline network activity deviations.
Note
We recommend that you enable all the security engines.
When an engine detects a deviation, an alert is triggered. You can view and manage alerts from the alert screen or from a partner system.
The name of the engine that triggered the alert appears under the alert title.
Protocol violation engine
A protocol violation occurs when the packet structure or field values don't comply with the protocol specification.
Example scenario: "Illegal MODBUS Operation (Function Code Zero)" alert. This alert indicates that a primary device sent a request with function code 0 to a secondary device. This action isn't allowed according to the protocol specification, and the secondary device might not handle the input correctly.
Policy violation engine
A policy violation occurs with a deviation from baseline behavior defined in learned or configured settings.
Example scenario: "Unauthorized HTTP User Agent" alert. This alert indicates that an application that wasn't learned or approved by policy is used as an HTTP client on a device. This might be a new web browser or application on that device.
Malware engine
The Malware engine detects malicious network activity.
Example scenario: "Suspicion of Malicious Activity (Stuxnet)" alert. This alert indicates that the sensor detected suspicious network activity known to be related to the Stuxnet malware. This malware is an advanced persistent threat aimed at industrial control and SCADA networks.
Anomaly engine
The Anomaly engine detects anomalies in network behavior.
Example scenario: "Periodic Behavior in Communication Channel" alert. The component inspects network connections and finds periodic and cyclic behavior of data transmission. This behavior is common in industrial networks.
Operational engine
The Operational engine detects operational incidents or malfunctioning entities.
Example scenario: "Device is Suspected to be Disconnected (Unresponsive)" alert. This alert is raised when a device isn't responding to any kind of request for a predefined period. This alert might indicate a device shutdown, disconnection, or malfunction.
Enable and disable engines
When you disable a policy engine, information that the engine generates won't be available to the sensor. For example, if you disable the Anomaly engine, you won't receive alerts on network anomalies. If you created a forwarding rule, anomalies that the engine learns won't be sent. To enable or disable a policy engine, select Enabled or Disabled for the specific engine.
Configure DHCP address ranges
Your network might consist of both static and dynamic IP addresses. Typically, static addresses are found on OT networks through historians, controllers, and network infrastructure devices such as switches and routers. Dynamic IP allocation is typically implemented on guest networks with laptops, PCs, smartphones, and other portable equipment (using Wi-Fi or LAN physical connections in different locations).
If you're working with dynamic networks, you handle IP address changes that occur when new IP addresses are assigned. You do this by defining DHCP address ranges.
Changes might happen, for example, when a DHCP server assigns IP addresses.
Defining dynamic IP addresses on each sensor enables comprehensive, transparent support in instances of IP address changes. This activity ensures comprehensive reporting for each unique device.
The sensor console presents the most current IP address associated with the device and indicates which devices are dynamic. For example:
The Data Mining report and Device Inventory report consolidate all activity learned from the device as one entity, regardless of the IP address changes. These reports indicate which addresses were defined as DHCP addresses.
The Device Properties window indicates if the device was defined as a DHCP device.
To set a DHCP address range:
On the side menu, select System Settings > Network monitoring > DHCP Ranges.
Define a new range by setting From and To values.
Optionally: Define the range name, up to 256 characters.
To export the ranges to a CSV file, select Export.
To manually add multiple ranges from a CSV file, select Import and then select the file.
Note
The ranges that you import from a CSV file overwrite the existing range settings.
Select Save.
Next steps
For more information, see:
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