Industrial Cybersecurity, 2021: Frost Radar Report

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The need for industrial cybersecurity is the result of 2 significant trends: increasing connectivity of all assets and digital transformation initiatives. Information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) convergence are good but it has its risks because of substandard security frameworks. Connectivity exposes organizations and infrastructure to attacks that have grown tremendously over the last few years (the most obvious and recent is the pervasiveness of ransomware).

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial cybersecurity vendors extended security to employees who needed access to critical infrastructure from anywhere. As employees continue to return to offices/facilities, vendors must maintain the security of devices that have not been under the organization’s security umbrella for almost a year.

The Biden administration has been proactive with initiatives to upgrade inadequate systems: the US Department of Energy, for example, started a 100-day plan to improve cybersecurity in utilities’ industrial control systems to secure the energy sector. Vendors expect new regulations in other industries as well and note that heightened awareness and government actions are dramatic changes from even 6 months ago.

Vendors at one time were either OT-centric (focused on such things as programmable logic controllers, and intelligent electronic devices) or IT-centric, but now more have adopted an Internet of Things mindset and differentiate themselves based on their ability to cover both IT and OT domains/environments.

The Frost Radar reveals the market positioning of companies in an industry using their Growth and Innovation scores as highlighted in the methodology. The document presents competitive profiles on each of the companies in the Frost Radar based on their strengths, opportunities, and a small discussion on their positioning. The publisher analyzes hundreds of companies in an industry and benchmarks them across 10 criteria on the Frost Radar, where the leading companies in the industry are then positioned.