Reposted with permission from Chris McNamara and Smart Industry
The Smart Industry: 2023 Crystal Ball Report
The digitalization of industry is rapidly evolving. That’s a good thing, but it makes predicting future trends particularly tricky and particularly important, because “the future” can come as quickly as “tomorrow.”
Here in our annual Crystal Ball Report, we gather predictions from dozens of industry thought leaders on the immediate future of manufacturing.
“As manufacturers introduce artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into their environments, many manufacturers continue to struggle to ensure cybersecurity in environments that have a complex mesh of legacy software, portable media, removable devices, and difficult-to-update OT networks. Cyber-attackers are increasingly targeting industrial-control systems (ICS), causing unplanned downtime, missed financial targets, and loss of consumer confidence. Adopting security controls that address these challenges will be key in 2023, as it is critical to ensuring that manufacturers can continue to adopt new technologies and meet changing customer expectations.
Similarly, the addition of more third-party vendors and contractors introduces supply chain risks, including vulnerable software updates—sometimes unintentional vulnerabilities, but sometimes intentional ones coming from countries with ties to malicious actors. This might allow attackers to exploit those vulnerabilities once an attack occurs, something we may see increase in 2023. Scanning for vulnerabilities and applying patches is essential before applying software updates or using potentially vulnerable removable media.
Likewise, internal teams use laptops, power system simulators, and other transient cyber-assets to monitor, manage, and diagnose issues on the ICS, but these assets may be infected with malware and cause widespread infection or stolen to make unauthorized and unwelcome changes to the ICS. Without visibility into OT assets, cybersecurity teams in ICS/OT environments have difficulty planning out a security system that meets the unique needs of the manufacturing industry. With that in mind, we predict OT security teams will heavily invest in OT-asset visibility and management in the coming year.”
Pete Lund
VP of Products – OT Security
Want to learn more from Pete or speak to one of our critical infrastructure protection experts?
