Frost & Sullivan: Industrial cybersecurity market growing

Although traditional manufacturing industries were not designed with security in mind, the proliferation of networks and devices, disparate communication channels, and the use of off-the-shelf software has thrust cybersecurity into the spotlight.

These are among the findings of recent research by Frost & Sullivan, which found that the global cybersecurity market for control systems is expected to grow at a rate between 20% to 25% every year until 2021.

Safety and security concerns associated with the high levels of connectivity and integration are surfacing as the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) takes shape in the industrial networks and manufacturing plant floors. The frequency of sophisticated and targeted advanced persistent threats has given further weight to the safety argument across both process and discrete industries.

According to the research, North America and Europe will remain at the forefront of creating awareness and initiating technology advancements that address attacks from advanced persistent threats.

“Enterprises currently employ a broad, layered approach towards protecting cyber assets while industry organisations work on establishing suitable standards,” said Sonia Francisco, senior research analyst, industrial automation and process control, for Frost & Sullivan. “Partnerships among government, industry and research institutes will be vital in forming robust, industry-based standards that will speed up the development of comprehensive security management solutions.”

As the IoT concept transforms plant architecture, defence-by-default security strategies will give way to defence-by-design solutions, Francisco said. In-built security solutions that can sense, adapt, modify and respond to threats based on various ecosystem parameters will gain traction.

Creating industry- and application-specific solutions will also be crucial, she added, as information technology (IT) solutions continue to stream into the operational technology (OT) space. Solution providers in the IT and the OT ecosystems must join hands to deploy end-to-end cyber security solutions for industrial systems.

“Such extensive integration will require a new age workforce with both IT and OT expertise,” Francisco said. “Cybersecurity service providers can provide training and change management solutions that will bridge the knowledge gap.”

As a majority of industries upgrade to smart systems and processes, Francisco said industrial cybersecurity will soon make the inevitable shift from a reactive operating model to a proactive design philosophy.