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Modern-day industrial and critical infrastructure organizations rely heavily on operational technology ( OT ) environments to produce goods and services . Beyond traditional IT operations that utilize servers , routers , PCs and switches , these organizations also rely on OT , such as programmable logic controllers ( PLCs ), distributed control systems ( DCSs ) and human machine interfaces ( HMIs ) to run physical plants and factories . While OT devices have been in commercial use for more than 50 years , there have been major upgrades to OT infrastructure . The face of OT infrastructure is rapidly evolving .

THE CONVERGENCE INITIATIVE

Today , an increasing number of organizations are considering – and adopting – convergence in their IT and OT environments . Others have no intention to converge IT and OT , however , even under the most favorable circumstances , this isolation is nearly impossible to maintain . The introduction of one seemingly harmless variable into a sterile environment can permanently destroy the most stringently enforced air-gap . This is known as “ accidental convergence ”.

INDUSTRY 4.0

Many organizations are rapidly adopting Industry 4.0 technology . In industrial and critical infrastructure environments , this can translate into thousands of devices connected via the Industrial Internet of Things ( IIoT ).

Both of these initiatives can result in substantial efficiencies and cost savings , but they are not without risk . Without proper OT security , you can introduce new attack surfaces and vectors and can put your OT infrastructure and operations at risk . p

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