Industrial automation has always carried risk. What’s changed over the past decade is the scale, speed, and consequence of that risk.
Where control systems were once isolated, proprietary, and difficult to access, today they are connected, standardized, and increasingly integrated with enterprise and cloud platforms. The same Ethernet connectivity and open protocols that enable digital transformation also expand the attack surface.
For manufacturers, there’s no question that cybersecurity needs to be applied diligently and proactively to operations. Questions instead revolve around how to build an approach that protects uptime, safety, and intellectual property without crippling productivity.
Cybersecurity in OT is no longer optional, and it’s no longer just an IT problem.