General Comments/Chat

Thought I'd kick-off a new general comments thread to capture industry news and chat in one place, rather than spread across multiple announcements.

My 9-5 is in the construction space (industrial electrical specifically), and I'm in contact with industrial control systems engineers and industrial OEM's regularly. When I get the opportunity, I'm always asking about cyber security and if the industrial sector is changing to better protect itself.

The feedback I'm getting is security is getting a lot more attention in state owned critical infrastructure space i.e. water treatment, wastewater treatment. Specific note was made to the fact that IT (Information Technology i.e. networking, computing and data storage) and OT (Operational Technology i.e. PLC/SCADA control systems, telemetry, instrumentation) are converging into one system as large enterprise increasingly utilises both IT/OT to analyse data and therefore optimise business decisions and processes.

Thought I's share an article to help explain in more detail for those interested;

https://www.sierrawireless.com/iot-blog/it-ot-convergence/

You'll see that one of the challenges as IT/OT systems converge is keeping the data safe, and if mandated, my mind boggles to think of the scale for security required given the size of some of the water/wastewater networks and IT/OT systems across the country- let alone power.

Keeping a close eye on this one...