What Industrial Companies Can Learn from Le Louvre? Tips for Securing Critical Assets
- Carla Medina
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
By: Carlos Soto, Industry Business Manager, Radix
On October 20th at 9:30 am local time, shortly after the world's most visited museum opened, thieves reportedly arrived at the Louvre. Four minutes later they made their escape on two scooters waiting outside with priceless jewels.
Two of the thieves got inside by cutting through the window with power tools. The room they entered had no working CCTV cameras, according to French media. According to reports the password for the Louvre’s video surveillance system was “Louvre.”
Daring heists are similar to cyber-attacks. They are only successful when well-planned thieves find and exploit the weakest links of a network. The main takeaway from the Louvre heist isn’t simply for IT security to use stronger passwords on seemingly innocuous nodes or systems.
The real lesson in the Louvre heist is that securing data with the same vigor that you protect your assets is essential to thwarting impending attacks.
I recently used this analogy on a Fedinisder.com webinar, “Addressing Security Holes in Air Gapped Environments.” By definition, an Air Gapped environment, like the Louvre when closed, is cut off from the outside world to protect critical assets. “They are regarded as one of the most secure types of environments currently operating in both government and private service,” according to John Breeden, Moderator and Contributing Editor for Fedinsider.com.
While air-gapped networks do offer a great deal of security, there are still a lot of challenges involved in protecting them. In fact, if you are not careful, having an air-gapped network can create a false sense of security.
A Secret Tip to Stronger Air Gaps
From insider threats and supply chain tampering to peripheral and sensor proximity risks, there are a host of challenges that dilute the security of air-gapped environments. Yet by having a set of strong operating procedures and robust recruiting and training policies, organizations can take large strides in securing their air-gapped environments.
During the webinar one of the lesser-known tips I provided is a robust data lifecycle management policy. If protecting your data is as important as protecting the operational technology, the industrial control system, the SCADA and equipment – then your air gapped environment needs to have a strong focus on data architecture maturity.
This needs to go beyond policy, procedures and management and include data cataloging, prioritization, storage, and transportation. One example we discussed is the need to leverage a solution like Radix Leafcutter to quick and effectively move data that has to leave an air-gapped environment for operational purposes – whether analysis, reporting, or archival.
Products like Leafcutter stream up to 1 billion data points per day to a secure data lake empowering users to send process data from historians to the cloud with under two seconds of latency. With solutions like Leafcutter, air-gapped networks can simplify hardware supply chain tampering, and unnecessary peripherals, enforcing stricter device placement.
Get started today by visiting Leafcutter™ | Radix North America and setting up a demo with one of our professionals.
About Radix
Founded in 2010, Radix is a privately held technology solutions and services company operating globally, empowering customers with consulting, engineering, operations technology, and digital solutions. Radix combines key capabilities and practices to enable our worldwide customers to thrive in their technology journey. With North American headquarters in Houston, TX, and headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, including offices in São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, Radix provides technology-based, data-driven solutions to asset-intensive industries. Radix's robust capabilities extend to more than 30 countries worldwide. Learn more: www.radixeng.com
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