Digital Transformation and Connected Systems Have Opened the Door to New Threat Vectors

How Converging with IT Has Dramatically Impacted the Security of OT Networks

Historically, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are the brains of any industrial control system (ICS) or operational technology (OT) network, lacked security by design. PLCs did not verify the authenticity or authorization of message senders and most, if not all, controller communications had no encryption. In the past, asset owners kept their OT networks isolated from enterprise IT networks and relied on this “air gap” as the primary means of securing the industrial processes governed by the OT environment.

Today, the digitization of operational processes has led to gains in productivity, efficiency, responsiveness, and overall profitability. However, while technological and organizational convergences between IT and OT have dramatically impacted OT networks and how they are managed and protected, this new connectivity has opened the door to new threat vectors.

Download this short point-of-view paper to understand how organization can address the expanded attack surface with modern, OT-specific protection such as zero-trust remote access, converged security operations and secure SD-WAN.