From a steady supply of drinking water to an uninterrupted flow of electricity to effective traffic management, nearly every industrial process driving modern life is dependent on industrial control systems (ICS).

In recent years, the accelerated progress of Industry 4.0 has initiated a convergence between the IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) systems in industrial ecosystems. The integration of Industrial IoT (IIoT) technologies is indicative of the growing interest in ensuring seamless machine-to-machine communication among OT assets, using internet-based systems like the cloud.

However, despite the benefits arising from this convergence, the amalgamation of IT/OT has also made modern industrial processes highly susceptible to cyberattacks, many of which are targeted towards industrial control systems. According to a Kaspersky report, over 33.8 per cent ICS computers were under attack in early 2021, indicating a 0.4 per cent rise from Q2 2020.

The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack of May 2021 is a prime example of how even minor disruptions in critical national infrastructures can cripple a nation’s functioning.

Despite rapid efforts by the authorities to contain the attack, several systems had to go offline creating a block to fuel supplies. Although this disruption was relatively brief, it resulted in dramatic consequences, from the declaration of emergency in four major US states to the most profound increase in average gasoline prices since 2014.

While objectives behind the attacks range from financial motive to deliberate process disruptions by hostile actors, OT systems are targeted specifically due to their importance in the efficient functioning of industrialized nations. This trend has, in turn, shed light on the importance of the industrial control systems (ICS) market, which is expected to cross $12 billion by 2026, according to estimates from Global Market Insights.

So far, a siloed approach has been taken during the implementation of cybersecurity for industrial control systems.

However, this has now become obsolete, with more comprehensive and robust ICS security solutions emerging from the woodwork, designed to protect the “IT in OT” and extend industrial infrastructure protection across the entire enterprise network.

In January 2022, Honeywell introduced its Honeywell Threat Defense Platform (HTDP) in collaboration with Acalvio Technologies, for the detection of known as well as zero-day attacks across OT environments in commercial buildings.

Using autonomous deception strategies to outfox nefarious actors, the Acalvio-powered HTDP solution was designed with high-fidelity threat detection attributes to provide active defense against risks to OT security.