How To Find and Fix Unreachable OT Devices
Unreachable OT devices can cause a lot of unnecessary traffic and confusion on an Operational Technology (OT) network, and it can be difficult to pin down exactly what might be the root cause of the issue. Depending on your network’s configuration, it could be stuck in a loop trying to establish a connection with a […]
You Can’t Protect What You Can’t See
There was a time when no one really had to worry about securing their operational technology (OT) devices. You could enjoy all the benefits of connectivity and remote access without the “hassle” of secure passwords or firewalls. Those days are gone. As Fred Gordy writes for FacilitiesNet, “Devices are now in the hacker’s crosshairs.” If […]
Managing VLANs and BBMDs in BACnet Networks: A Practical Guide
On paper, virtual local area networks (VLANs) and BACnet Broadcast Management Devices (BBMDs) seem completely at odds. VLANs are meant to separate and segregate traffic into multiple subnets. At the same time, BBMDs are designed to bypass all that work to broadcast messages across different parts of the network without limiting which devices should get […]
THE BENEFITS OF COLLABORATIVE TRAINING
As OT networks continue to modernize, keeping teams up-to-date with the latest tools, approaches, and security threats is more important than ever. One great way to do this? Collaborative training sessions with facility OT teams and external system integrators (SIs) or vendors. For both facilities and external teams, staying up-to-date allows them to effectively manage […]
Guest Post: Cybersecurity for OT Systems?
By Kevin Callahan, Product Evangelist Alerton, and Pook-Ping Yao, CEO at Optigo Networks In late 2019, Alerton hosted a conference for its partners in California. There, Eric O’Neill, a former FBI counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence operative, spoke about cybersecurity in our new age of smart technology and connectivity. A question came from the audience: how do […]
BACnet Diagnostics Made Easy with Optigo Visual Networks
Whether you’re at the doctor’s office, in the classroom, or the mechanic’s, test results aren’t very helpful if you don’t understand the results. It’s the same with monitoring network traffic—the results are here to help you, but knowing how to act on them is just as important. With over 25 out-of-the-box BACnet diagnostics (and more […]
How BACnet Excessive Read Rate Slows Down Your OT Network
What is Read Rate in Operational Technology? Falling under the umbrella of “data polling” attributes, “BACnet excessive read rate” is the frequency at which a device on your network is requesting data from another device as part of data acquisition management processes in OT systems. Read rate is a key metric in managing building control […]
After COVID-19: What’s Next for Building Automation
By Pook-Ping Yao, CEO, Optigo Networks What a time it’s been. We’re a few months into what could be a year — or more — of the new normal. I’ve enjoyed seeing more of my wife and kids, eating daily lunches together, and exploring our board game collection. But we’re also learning to cope in a world […]
Foresight is 2020: Predictions for smart buildings and IoT in 2020
You could safely term the last decade of tech innovation “the Smartphone Era.” The first iPhone was released almost 13 years ago, in 2007. Since then, we’ve gone from seeing smartphones as something of a fingerprint-smudged fad to an essential piece of our lifestyle. So, if we’re leaving behind the Smartphone Era, where will we […]
