POWERED BY

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Enterprise Security

Industrial Cybersecurity in the Era of

Digitalisation has revealed the main barriers that inhibit or delay implementation of industrial cybersecurity projects .

According to the report , the most common obstacles include the inability to stop production ( 34 %) and bureaucratic steps , such as a lengthy approval process ( 31 %) and having too many decision-makers ( 23 %).

The report noted that barriers may become a critical point in light of COVID-19 because they can affect the implementation of pandemic-driven operational technology ( OT ) security initiatives .

The cybersecurity race doesn ’ t slow down and every year many incidents , including high profile attacks , are hitting industrial control systems ( ICS ).

The report observed that the pandemic lockdown introduced its own challenges in addition to the existing threat landscape .

Industrial firms have to adapt to new norms including remote work , overnight digitalisation and new hygiene requirements , as well as specific pandemicdriven threats such as a massive growth in phishing attacks . technical obstacles – in total , almost half of organisations ( 46 %) face red tape delays . In addition to the most prevalent – long approval times and numerous decisionmakers – these barriers include protracted supplier selection and purchasing processes , as well as interference from other departments .

These barriers may become even more critical in the current post-lockdown period . The survey found that almost half of organisations ( 46 %) expect to see changes in their OT security priorities as a result of the pandemic . These organisations according to the report , will probably need to shift their security strategy on-the-fly and quickly implement new cybersecurity practices .

While it can be challenging generally , due to the specific requirements of OT , the barriers for implementation can complicate and slow down the process even more .

Georgy Shebuldaev , Head of Growth Centre at Kaspersky , said : “ It ’ s always more difficult to invest money and resources in projects without a clear return on investment , such as with cybersecurity initiatives . And while cybersecurity for OT is still a developing area , all these management barriers are quite natural .

“ As a vendor , it is up to us to help customers eliminate these obstacles and simplify and speed up the implementation of protection measures . Our task here is to make ROI more transparent and showcase the risks for businesses so customers can understand the benefits from the very beginning and better justify them to C-suite or the board if needed .”

Some organisations will need to be even more conscious as they try to overcome these difficulties with decreased OT security budgets ( 24 %). •

Organisations need to make sure their protection is up to date with these changes and there are no open doors for malicious actions in ICS networks .

The barriers however are what organisations will have to overcome when implementing cybersecurity projects .

Remarkably , the report revealed that most firms refer to bureaucratic rather than

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO 67