Let’s take a look at a few of those challenges:
The air gap doesn’t work anymore. The rise of IoT and cloud adoption across the industrial value chain has made many industrial networks so integrated that the traditional air gap simply isn’t effective.
ICS devices were built to last, not to evolve. Stringent uptime requirements of many industrial devices make it difficult, costly, or risky to update or replace them, leaving many CIM devices vulnerable to modern attacks, yet still connected to the wider network.
IT-OT convergence and new technologies increase risk. As digital transformation breaks down IT-OT barriers, advancements in networking and data analytics reshape processes, and new sophisticated cyberattacks appear, ICS frameworks are slow to adapt.
Many ICS network owners hesitate to adopt zero trust. Concerns over downtime causing lost revenue, disrupting infrastructure, or even endangering people’s safety make industrial operators uncertain about potential tradeoffs in costs and complexity, even as zero trust remains the most effective strategy for securing modern networks. Read more.