Cyber Ireland OTSec SIG

Cyber Ireland’s Operational Technology Cybersecurity (OTSec) Special Interest Group (SIG) provides a forum for industry end-users, integrators and vendors to share information, best practices and support capability building in operational technology cyber security across organisations and sectors.

The importance of digitalisation for key sectors such as manufacturing, food and drink, healthcare, utilities, among others, has grown rapidly with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0. This increasing connectedness of the manufacturing and process environment, including to customers and suppliers, brings new, inherent cyber security risks for companies and their supply chain, in both information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems.

Challenges

From discussions with OT security professionals the most significant challenges identified are:

Organisations not having a clear OT strategy;
Managing the differences between IT / OT and integration;
Skills and experience needed to manage OT through continuous change;
Software vulnerability management with OT assets that may remain in service for 10+ years;
Impact of regulations (e.g. NIS 2.0) on OT cyber security and implementation of standards such as IEC 62443

OTSec SIG Goals:

To discuss and address these challenges, Cyber Ireland has established its OTSec SIG, led by industry. The OTSec SIG will:

Provide a forum for industry and professionals in the OTSec space to discuss their needs and challenges, sharing information and best practices.
Identify the OT cyber security training needs of companies and work with education and training providers to ensure industry skill demands are met.
Engage with relevant standards and regulations to support implementation in the sector.
Bring solutions from Irish-based companies to meet the challenges of OT cyber security professionals and organisations.