Modern industrial control systems are increasingly comprised of connected, information-enabled systems. These connected enterprises inherently increase security risks, and with it the responsibilities of control system providers and users alike.
In the past, industrial control systems used proprietary technologies that were static and custom built. Importantly these systems were generally segregated from the information systems at most companies. They were largely incompatible and the commercial technologies that were used in office spaces simply didn’t fit the requirements of control systems.
As technology has advanced and the Internet of Things has become a reality, devices have moved from the office and home into the factory, adapted for use in control systems. This has helped in improving costs, compatibility and ease of use. With these improvements, connectivity between systems became simpler and increasingly demanded by users.
Bringing together enterprise-level IT and plant-level operations technology into a common infrastructure creates more opportunities to improve operations, but without proper cybersecurity hygiene may…
