OT ICS Cybersecurity for Manufacturing: Risks and Solutions
OT/ICS security refers to protecting the operational technology and industrial control systems that physically run manufacturing equipment, from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) on the production line to the SCADA systems that monitor and control entire plants. Manufacturing firms can no longer treat this as separate from standard IT security because OT and IT networks are now deeply connected, and an attack that starts on a standard IT system, such as a phishing email, can now reach the equipment that physically runs your factory floor. For decades, the systems running manufacturing equipment — PLCs, SCADA, and industrial sensors — were physically isolated from corporate IT networks and the internet entirely. This isolation, often called an "air gap," was the primary security control, and for a long time it worked well enough that dedicated OT security was barely discussed outside specialist circles. That isolation has largely disappeared. Modern manufacturing relies on...