Industry Background and Future Trends
For many years Electricity, Water, Oil and Gas Utilities as well as Transport companies have required bespoke, robust, dedicated network critical infrastructure solutions with high availability and reliability. Historically, these tended to use bespoke well-proven technologies aimed at providing key functionality and high availability, with redundancy, protection and long service life favoured over ‘cutting-edge’ performance. These aspects are still important, but the drive towards modern, efficient and interconnected operations, has resulted in the adoption of mainstream Internet functionality and movement from TDM to IP technologies.
In the past, the very nature of the deployed bespoke systems has meant that security issues didn’t arise, since wider threats didn’t apply. A case of being safe by being unknown. But with the adoption of Internet technologies, along with the growth and increasing sophistication of cyber-threats, Utilities and other private network companies are needing to apply Information Technology (IT) security solutions tailored to their Operational Technology (OT) systems.
The issuing of the NIS directive by the European Union Agency for Cyber Security has raised the profile of this topic and generated the needed drive towards the implementation of the required solutions.
October is Cyber Security Month, so it’s an ideal time to find out more …
@YellowsBestLtd seeks Solutions and provides Services to support Customer requirements to maintain and keep operational critical infrastructure networks. Please get in touch to discuss how we can be of assistance.