In a recent blog post for the State of Security, we asked security experts what they thought would make the biggest impact on the security of industrial control systems (ICS) in the next 5-10 years.

They gave numerous answers, but perhaps the most frequent response was the ongoing IT-OT convergence in industrial organizations. Our experts felt that the merging of these two environments will force teams to defend against new threats which some of the assets for which they’re responsible have never encountered. It’s therefore in each industrial organization’s best interest to make sure IT and OT teams learn to work together and use their respective knowledge to better defend the organization against digital threats.

That begs the question: just how are IT and OT teams supposed to come together effectively?

To help industrial organizations, we went back to our experts and asked them exactly that. Here’s what they had to say.

Gary DiFazio | Strategic Marketing Director, TripwireGary DiFazio IT OT

The one word for this is: collaborate. At the end of the day, we all want to do the right thing for our organizations. Do what is best through collaboration. Understand the unique needs and direction of the shop floor so that cybersecurity solutions can be implemented to support availability, safety, productivity and quality of the operation.

Remember that cybersecurity is a journey that never ends. Automation systems continue to evolve, and the threat landscape is always changing. Slow and steady will win the race. We must all be on this journey through collaboration and teamwork.

Lane Thames | Senior Security Researcher, TripwireLane Thomas it ot

As we know, IT and OT groups have worked largely in isolation for as long as these technologies have existed.

Recently, the trend has changed, and many of these environments have started to integrate with each other. (Read more...)