{"id":28481,"date":"2019-08-16T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/get-ready-for-the-convergence-of-it-and-ot-networking-and-security\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T14:28:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T14:28:00","slug":"get-ready-for-the-convergence-of-it-and-ot-networking-and-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/get-ready-for-the-convergence-of-it-and-ot-networking-and-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready for the convergence of IT and OT networking and security"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Most IT networking professionals are so busy with their day-to-day responsibilities that they don\u2019t have time to consider taking on more work. But for companies with an industrial component, there\u2019s an elephant in the room that is clamoring for attention. I\u2019m talking about the increasingly common convergence of IT and operational technology (OT) networking and security.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, IT and OT have had very separate roles in an organization. IT is typically tasked with moving data between computers and humans, whereas OT is tasked with moving data between \u201cthings,\u201d such as sensors, actuators, smart machines, and other devices to enhance manufacturing and industrial processes. Not only were the roles for IT and OT completely separate, but their technologies and networks were, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s changing, however, as companies want to collect telemetry data from the OT side to drive analytics and business processes on the IT side. The lines between the two sides are blurring, and this has big implications for IT networking and security teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis convergence of IT and OT systems is absolutely on the increase, and it’s especially affecting the industries that are in the business of producing things, whatever those things happen to be,\u201d according to Jeff Hussey, CEO of Tempered Networks<\/a>, which is working to help bridge the gap between the two. \u201cThere are devices on the OT side that are increasingly networked but without any security to those networks. Their operators historically relied on an air gap between the networks of devices, but those gaps no longer exist. The complexity of the environment and the expansive attack surface that is created as a result of connecting all of these devices to corporate networks massively increases the tasks needed to secure even the traditional networks, much less the expanded converged networks.\u201d<\/p>\n