OT (Operational Technology) Security Operations Center (SOC) is designed to monitor, detect, and respond to cybersecurity threats targeting critical infrastructure and industrial systems. It adheres to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and focuses on safeguarding assets like SCADA systems, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and Remote Terminal Units against cyberattacks, ensuring operational continuity and safety. The OT SOC integrates real-time monitoring, anomaly detection and incident response tailored to OT environments. It provides unified OT & IT device security monitoring. 

Key Components:

1.Log collection from varied sources from different devices like IT & OT devices, IDS/IPS, firewall, network components and also including sources like expert knowledge, earlier experiences and data generated from assets.

2. Data collected is parsed and normalized for analysis.

3. Log data is converted as events and security event correlation is done to identify incidents. 

4. Correlation rules are pre-configured and also can be custom made using security incident and event management (SIEM).

5. SIEM generates and provides alerts, events and incidents to the incident management system.

6. Incident management system provides features such as classification and triage of alerts, management of alerts, detection of anomalies and proactive monitoring of alerts.

7. Generated incidents/ anomalies/ events are provided to SOC analysts through dashboards.

8. SOC analysts are provided with incident metrics and play books along with visualization.

1.Real-time threat detection like detecting host scanning/ port scanning in the network

2. OT specific protocol anomalies detection (Modbus, IEC-104) 

3. Behavioural anomaly detection on OT systems

4. Coordinating incident response with Security stakeholders. 

5. Configuration monitoring for OT devices 

1.Real-time monitoring of IT & OT endpoints

2.Asset discovery & management

3.Log aggregation from diverse sources like Windows and Linux machines, Servers and 4.networking devices(Routers, switches, etc.) and OT devices (RTUs, MTUs, PLCs, etc.)

5.Traffic analysis at system, protocol, and behavioral levels

6.Scanning of assets for vulnerabilities for better risk management & mitigation 

7.Support for industrial protocols anomaly detection (e.g. Modbus, IEC 60870-5-104)

8.Security incident and event management (SIEM)

9.Incident triage & prioritization 

10.Customizable log management

11.Threat Intelligence feed connections 

Basic Architecture

Redundant systems for high availability.

Centralized monitoring consoles with distributed data collectors or sensors in the OT environment.

Monitoring & Detection

Real-time monitoring of SCADA networks and endpoints.

Protocol-aware intrusion detection systems (IDS) for OT-specific protocols (e.g., Modbus, IEC-104).

Anomaly detection systems utilizing machine learning or baselines for OT traffic.

Integration

Compatibility with OT devices, including legacy systems.

Integration with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems and other SOCs

Incident Response

OT-IT combined incident handling

Threat Intelligence

Subscription to third party threat intelligence feeds.

Compliance & Standards

Adherence to NIST Cyber Security Framework

Resilience & Redundancy

Log data retention as per needs

Backup and recovery mechanisms.

Fail-safe and failover configurations to maintain operations during attacks.

Name : L MAHENDRA

E-mail : rtsg@cdac.in