Network Access Control and ICS: A Practical Guide

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are the lifeblood of the organizations that use them, often requiring one-hundred percent uptime. This requirement makes securing them and the networks they operate on extremely challenging, as increased security often increases the risk of interruption. Due to the nature of their function, Industrial Control Systems tend to be left untouched and in place until they physically break. Resulting in decades-old equipment operating on modern infrastructure with modern security risks. Those things combined with OT staff, who are often not trained in security or basic IT functions, means getting buy-in for anything that increases risk or changes their job function becomes near impossible. However, it is still possible to implement complex network access control systems safely and effectively and architect them in a way usable by plant engineers (OT staff) without the need for extensive security or IT training.