INFOGRAPHIC
INFOGRAPHIC
New study reveals security
problem of converging OT and IT
C
apitalising on the new digital marketplace not only requires
that organisations collect and process data but that they also
use that data to impact the bottom line.
Much of that is achieved simply by serving up data on demand to
consumers. But some of the rest is achieved by leveraging real-time
data to impact things such as the manufacturing floor, inventory
management or fine-tuning production to meet shifts in demand.
This requires connecting traditionally isolated operational technology
(OT) networks with IT.
In a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of Fortinet in January 2018, 429 global decision-makers
across a wide variety of industries who are responsible for the
security of their organisation’s critical infrastructure, IP level
protection, IoT and/or SCADA, were asked about this convergence
process and the security challenges they are facing.
The results showed that nearly all companies have already begun
at least a basic convergence of OT and IT. As these organisations
begin to actively converge these environments however, they are
encountering issues related to integration and security that they may
not be equipped to handle.
IT teams have a tendency to just want to throw security technology
at the network and call it good. But these networks can be very
different and what works well in one environment can have
devastating consequences in the other. For example, an error that
opens a port on a switch can have a very different result from one
that opens a valve on a boiler.
What organisations now understand is that IT and OT teams speak
very different languages when it comes to issues like security. An
ICS or SCADA system, for example, may have been running on
“
IT TEAMS HAVE A
TENDENCY TO JUST WANT
TO THROW SECURITY
TECHNOLOGY AT THE
NETWORK AND CALL IT GOOD.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
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