That said, 46 percent of organizations experienced a cyber incident in the past year, yet 90 percent said they are confident they can contain a cyber incident, according to a new report from Rockwell Automation, entitled “Operational Resilience in the Age of Connectivity.” On top of that, 34 percent said cybersecurity is one of the biggest external obstacles to growth over the next 12 months.
The good news is industrial organizations are investing in cybersecurity, but those investments do not automatically translate into operational resilience, the report found.
“Industrial organizations understand that cybersecurity directly affects uptime, continuity, productivity and growth, but technology investments alone do not create operational resilience or confidence in an organization’s security posture,” said Rick Kaun, global director, cybersecurity services at Rockwell Automation. “True resilience is built when cybersecurity becomes an integral part of business strategy. Organizations that proactively manage risk and prepare for disruption are better positioned to protect operations, sustain production and gain a competitive advantage.”
Report Breakout
This report analyzes feedback from 1,560 respondents across 17 of the top manufacturing countries representing roles from management through C-suite. The survey sampled from a range of industries including Consumer Packaged Goods, Food & Beverage, Automotive, Semiconductor, Energy, and Life Sciences.
Organizations understand the stakes and are taking action to build their resilience – and confidence. Moreover, 62 percent already invested in cybersecurity platforms such as asset inventory, intrusion detection systems, and secure remote access. Cybersecurity also ranked among the top technologies delivering ROI over the past 12 months, according to the report.
Today, the issue is not awareness, rather the challenge is securing operations that continue to grow more connected and more complex.
That is where resilience comes in.
Resilient OT security requires more than tools and point solutions. It requires a proactive, end-to-end approach aligned to globally recognized frameworks and standards such as NIST, NIS2 and IEC 62443. This gives organizations a structured way to improve security maturity while meeting regulatory requirements. The following capabilities highlight actions taken by leading organizations:
Strategic advisory
Build a risk-based cybersecurity strategy. Cybersecurity resilience starts with understanding risk in the context of operational priorities, business objectives and organizational reality. Before organizations can effectively reduce risk, improve resilience, or meet compliance requirements, they need a clear view of their current cybersecurity posture and the gaps that present the greatest impacts. Without that foundation, cybersecurity investments can become fragmented, reactive and difficult to operationalize.
Source: Rockwell
Industrial networking and infrastructure
Organizations continue to modernize IT/OT architecture as operations become more connected. While each new connection increases cyber risk, a defensible architecture helps prevent complexity from becoming an expanded attack surface. Leading organizations that embed cybersecurity into the design of their operations are better positioned to reduce risk, improve resilience and spend less time responding to incidents and more time driving operational outcomes.
Asset inventory and lifecycle management
Gain visibility into assets and risk. Limited visibility is one of the most common barriers to building resilience. Without a complete view into the environment – including legacy systems, serially connected devices or temporary connections – organizations lack the starting point needed to plan and execute meaningful risk reduction.
Risk and vulnerability management
Prioritize and remediate the risks that matter most Organizations cannot eliminate all cyber risk, but they can improve security posture by strengthening how quickly they identify, prioritize and respond to threats before they impact operations. As industrial operations become more connected, effective risk management depends on contextual visibility, risk-based decision making and sustaining operational continuity through disruption.
Managed detection and response
Maintain continuous awareness across operations As IT and OT environments become increasingly interconnected, organizations face a growing challenge in distinguishing routine security events from threats that could disrupt operations. Continuous monitoring helps understand the risks that matter most before they cause disruption.
Incident response and recovery
Contain, restore and improve. When a cybersecurity incident occurs, a quick response is critical in determining how much damage, downtime and cost an organization may face. Containing an incident is only part of the challenge. Organizations must understand the importance of recovery readiness when it comes to operational resilience. When the worst happens, they need the ability to restore services quickly and return to normal operations.
Industrial organizations are investing in cybersecurity, AI and connected operations. Those investments are increasing confidence, but technology alone does not create resilience.
In a more connected industrial environment, cybersecurity is no longer only about protecting assets. It is about enabling resilient operations that can adapt, recover and continue delivering business value.
Organizations that gain the most value from cybersecurity will be those that take a proactive, programmatic approach. By building visibility, risk-based decision making, secure architectures, continuous monitoring and recovery readiness into their operations from the start, they can reduce operational risk, sustain production and enable the business to move forward with confidence.
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