Invisible to Scanners. Harder to Attack.
How cybercriminals discover potential targets and how threat intelligence can help keep your infrastructure off their radar.
Before launching an attack, cybercriminals often investigate which systems and services are accessible from the internet. This process, known as reconnaissance, helps them identify potential entry points.
Tools such as Shodan continuously scan publicly accessible systems and collect information about connected devices, exposed services and software. These technologies also serve legitimate security purposes. Cybersecurity professionals and CERT organizations use them to identify exposed infrastructure and potential vulnerabilities.
Unfortunately, attackers can exploit the same information. Instead of searching randomly for vulnerable organizations, cybercriminals can identify systems running specific technologies and investigate whether known vulnerabilities can be exploited.
The easier your infrastructure is to discover and investigate, the more information potential attackers can gather about it.
Connected for convenience. Exposed to risk
The recent cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems turned remote digital access into spoiled stock and empty shelves. They also highlight a critical cybersecurity challenge: systems that can be discovered online can become potential targets.
In its report on 3 November 2026, VRT NWS examined why so much operational equipment is connected to the internet. Geert Baudewijns, CEO of Secutec, pointed to a straightforward explanation: simplicity.
Remote access allows suppliers to update equipment without sending a technician to every location. Connected systems can also alert operators when something goes wrong. An immediate warning about a warming freezer can help staff intervene before the damage becomes apparent.
Those benefits depend on how access is secured. A maintenance interface that is directly reachable from the internet gives outsiders somewhere to connect. A supplier using outdated software or a poorly protected account can create another route into systems that keep a business running.
How cybercriminals turn scanning data into targets
In the article, Baudewijns highlighted Shodan as an example of how connected equipment can be found. Internet scanners query publicly reachable services and record information from their responses, such as product names, software versions and management interfaces. Search engines can then make that information searchable, much as conventional search engines index web content.
For cybercriminals, this information can significantly narrow the search for potential targets. When a new vulnerability becomes known, attackers can search for the relevant technology rather than investigate every organization individually. This is particularly urgent when a zero-day vulnerability becomes public before a patch is available.
A search result does not prove a system is vulnerable, but it provides a starting point for further investigation. Furthermore,
AI can accelerate scanning and the search for potential weaknesses. For defenders, that reinforces the value of limiting unnecessary exposure before an attacker begins probing.
Stopping reconnaissance with Threat Intelligence
A system that needs remote maintenance does not necessarily need a public management interface. In its refrigeration security alert, CERT-FR recommends removing direct internet exposure and restoring remote access through a secure VPN or protected network.
But what about systems and services that must remain accessible? This is where Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) can provide an additional layer of protection.
By identifying IP addresses associated with known internet scanners and malicious infrastructure, CTI Feeds enable supported firewalls to block connections from these sources before they can investigate protected systems. The intelligence identifies the threats; the firewall enforces the blocking rules.
Secutec CTI Feeds apply this principle to make protected infrastructure effectively invisible to the known scanners covered by those rules. By preventing these scanners from collecting fresh information, organizations can reduce the likelihood of their systems being indexed and subsequently investigated as potential targets.
Secutec CTI Feeds are powered by SIAM, Secutec's proprietary threat intelligence framework, which combines intelligence from international providers, Secutec's own research and Belgian CERT sources. The intelligence is published every four hours.
In practice, this approach offers three important benefits:
-
Reduce your external visibility
Prevent identified internet scanners from collecting information about protected systems, reducing their visibility to known scanning infrastructure.
-
Disrupt reconnaissance before an attack
Block connections from known scanning and malicious infrastructure before they can investigate your environment, helping to disrupt the early stages of attack preparation.
-
Strengthen your existing firewall protection
Apply continuously updated threat intelligence, refreshed every four hours, through supported firewall platforms without replacing your existing security architecture or manually maintaining extensive blocklists.
The value lies in addressing an earlier stage of the attack process. While many security controls focus on detecting or stopping malicious activity, scanner blocking helps reduce the opportunities attackers have to gather information in the first place.
Scanner blocking is an additional layer of protection that complements a strong cybersecurity foundation. Essential security measures such as strong authentication, including multi-factor authentication, secure supplier access, regular security updates and network segmentation remain crucial to reducing vulnerabilities and limiting the impact of a potential breach.
Security starts before the first attack attempt
The refrigeration attacks show why operational equipment deserves the same security attention as other business systems.
The lesson extends far beyond refrigeration systems. From industrial equipment to remote management interfaces and cloud services, any internet-accessible infrastructure can attract unwanted attention.
Cybersecurity is not only about preventing attackers from exploiting vulnerabilities. It is also about limiting their opportunities to discover potential targets in the first place.
By combining a strong security foundation with continuously updated threat intelligence, organizations can make reconnaissance more difficult, reduce unnecessary exposure and strengthen their defences before an attack begins.