OT environments are not like data centers. Trying to secure OT with IT tools is like trying to play a vinyl record on a CD player—same goal, ineffective technology.

With so many companies across industries adopting hybrid SOCs to bridge their IT and OT environments, security professionals are quickly recognizing that simply extending IT cybersecurity technologies and approaches across OT creates significant new risks. Take network segmentation, for example. Introducing VLAN technology in firewalls and managed switches for ICS demands costly downtime for continuous maintenance and network redesigns. Furthermore, by forcing all traffic through central firewalls, traditional IT segmentation can introduce unacceptable levels of latency, tee up very expensive points of failure and block critical communications—all while ineffectively protecting against insider threats and failing to block lateral movement.

Indeed, taking IT approaches to tackle critical OT cybersecurity requirements—asset visibility, vulnerability management, anti-virus deployment, change control, application “allowlisting,” EDR and periodic inspection, etc.—often introduces significantly more problems than it solves. Countering one threat might open three new vectors. The inconvenient truth is that cybersecurity that has proven highly effective for IT can actually increase risks in ICS environments. Well-founded concerns in this vein are why OT decision-makers often are reluctant to deploy cybersecurity at all. If the company’s ICS technologies have been delivering results (in some cases for a decade or more), why risk the possibility of unintended consequences of implementing unfamiliar new protection?

Of course, the global rise in cyber threats and attacks against OT makes inaction increasingly unwarranted. Most companies are taking at least some action to ensure business continuity, even if only putting it on the radar. Some are focused on where to start; others are deep into the unfortunate discovery of the substantial challenges of force-fitting traditional IT security into OT.

The good news is that the OT and IT worlds are making strides in working together, and OT now has specific guidance and regulations for protecting critical assets in multiple sectors. Today, forward-thinking companies in more industrial spaces are seeing—from visibility and vulnerability management to risk response—that solutions conceived specifically for the priorities and protocols of the OT environment successfully avert new risks and help keep operations running and revenues flowing.

This presentation will explore how and why OT demands specialized strategies that prioritize minimizing internet exposure, controlling updates, preventing latency, reducing failure points and maintaining operator control. Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of how to avoid the most common (and costly) missteps and what it really takes to keep operations safe and secure.