What is Industrial Control System ICS Security?
Industrial Control System ICS Security Definition: Protecting the supervisory and control systems that manage industrial operations, such as manufacturing, power grids, or utilities.
Understanding Industrial Control System ICS Security
Industrial Control System (ICS) Security addresses the unique challenges of protecting operational technology environments that manage physical processes in critical infrastructure, manufacturing, and utilities. These systems differ fundamentally from typical IT environments: they often run specialized protocols and legacy systems with decades-long lifecycles, have stringent availability requirements that complicate patching, and directly impact physical safety when compromised. Securing these environments requires specialized approaches: network segmentation with industrial demilitarized zones separating IT and OT networks, passive monitoring technologies that can identify anomalies without disrupting sensitive processes, and defense-in-depth architectures that don't rely solely on perimeter protection. Risk assessment for ICS environments must consider not just data confidentiality but also potential physical impacts from cyber attacks—equipment damage, environmental releases, or safety incidents. Organizations typically face challenges around visibility (many legacy systems lack logging capabilities), patching constraints, and balancing security with operational requirements. Effective security programs typically combine IT security best practices adapted for ICS environments with engineering perspectives that understand the physical processes being controlled.