The article says industrial control systems (ICS) remain hard to secure because many of them were built decades ago for reliability and safety, not for today’s cyber threats. These systems often run old hardware, use weak or unauthenticated protocols, and cannot easily be taken offline for patching or replacement because downtime is expensive and risky. At the same time, attackers are becoming more interested in them: the piece says both ransomware groups and nation-state actors see critical infrastructure as a valuable target, whether for money, disruption, or strategic “pre-positioning” before a larger conflict.

Its main conclusion is that organizations cannot wait for full replacement of legacy systems, so they need to build resilience around the equipment they already have. The article highlights practical priorities such as better asset visibility, tighter identity and privileged-access control, network segmentation and microsegmentation, continuous risk-based exposure management, and OT-friendly monitoring. It also says AI can help in limited ways—especially for anomaly detection and faster response—but it is not a magic fix, and it can add risk if used carelessly. The overall message is that ICS security in 2026 is less about “perfect protection” and more about making critical operations harder to disrupt and faster to recover.

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Source: https://www.securityweek.com/cyber-insights-2026-the-ongoing-fight-to-secure-industrial-control-systems/