The manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, and transportation sectors are incorporating information technology (IT) capabilities, such as big data analytics and machine learning, into operational technology (OT) systems, which allow manufacturers to improve productivity and efficiency, says IT service multinational T-Systems South Africa security specialist sales executive Lukas van der Merwe.

“Control engineers in charge of OT want to leverage the benefits that IT provides. They want the developments from the IT world to be brought to the OT world. Industries must plan for digitisation and convergence of IT and OT,” he adds.

However, the reliance on OT increases cyberrisks and makes breaches and attacks more difficult to assess.

A turning point for cyberattacks against the manufacturing industry occurred in 2017, when ransomware Wannacry and NotPetya caused significant interruptions to the operations of several large European and US multinational manufacturing enterprises.

“Some of the threats that manufacturing enterprises are specifically vulnerable to are malware, ransomware, employee negligence, State-sponsored cyberattacks and industrial espionage,” he explains.

According to the ‘2019 Manufacturing and Distribution Report’, manufacturers face a multitude of cybersecurity threats, with half of companies globally have fallen victim to at least one data breach during the past 12 months.

A recent study by advisory company Deloitte, ‘Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation’, found that 40% of manufacturing firms had a cyberattack in the past year. Of these, 38% suffered more than $1-million in damages.

IT and OT have historically been managed separately, but there has been a growing trend towards the convergence of these two systems over the past few years, along with faster connectivity to respond quickly and effectively to security and safety events, says Van der Merwe.

As OT systems become increasingly connected, they also become more exposed to more vulnerabilities. However, there are solutions for industrial sectors to secure their networks during OT-IT conversion.

The four basic fundamentals of OT cybersecurity that are key to implementing successful OT-IT convergence are visibility and profiling, consolidated monitoring, incident response and security automation.

By deploying an industrial cybersecurity platform to manage its OT network as an IT network, the IT division can become an enabler in the manufacturing process. Organisations can implement several security tactics that have demonstrated success in critical infrastructure industries, says Van der Merwe.

“With the continuous convergence of OT and IT systems, implementing essential tactics and solutions can help organisations gain visibility across their OT environments, reduce complexity in their network and enhance their security measures to reduce cyberrisk,” he concludes.

Story highlights:

* OT and IT convergence in industries brings benefits, but increases the risk of breaches and attacks.

* An industrial cybersecurity platform to manage OT networks as IT networks allows for cybersecurity tactics and solutions to be deployed to protect these networks.