In brief

Joe Weiss writes that network cybersecurity and control systems cybersecurity remain separated by a serious cultural and technical gap. The article, based on a discussion with IEEE Communications Society Techblog, argues that IT and OT network protection are important but not enough for industrial environments. Control systems, especially field devices and process sensors, often lack basic cybersecurity features such as authentication, logging, and forensic capability, and they are frequently maintained by personnel who are not trained in process-sensor cybersecurity.

The article says this gap is deeper than the usual IT/OT convergence debate because many network cybersecurity communities do not fully understand control-system requirements, including non-Ethernet communication issues, physics-based attacks, and operational failure modes. It points to recent CISA advisories showing that many field devices cannot meet recommended practices such as authentication or zero-trust principles. Weiss concludes that governments, industry, engineers, and cybersecurity teams need a shared definition of cyber incidents and stronger cross-domain training that reaches down to the process-sensor level.

Source: Control Global

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