Why ICS Network Should Be Monitored

The operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) that power our utilities, transportation, water monitoring and distribution, oil and gas, and communications networks are critical to supporting the safety, health, and well-being of the public. When an ICS system is compromised, it can lead to serious, even catastrophic, events.

Traditional IT cybersecurity solutions are insufficient to keep these OT environments secure. They do not provide the visibility necessary to detect a wide range of internal malfunctions, including misconfigurations and remote connections that run insecurely or incorrectly without the proper authorization.

In fact, these problems are more likely to lead to downtime than cyberattacks and are often overlooked. ICS monitoring solutions are designed to identify and remediate these issues to improve the overall security posture of an organization’s ICS environment.

Despite their high-profile status, many OT and ICS networks remain vulnerable to security breaches. These threats are often caused by human error or mistakes made by insiders, such as employees, contractors and vendors. Unlike in IT networks, where people may be limited to working on their assigned tasks, in an OT environment, they can be given access to the entire network and cause significant damage without authorization.

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