Operational technology (OT) refers to industrial systems and controls that perform physical work, such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Supervisory Control and Device Acquisition (SCADA) systems. OT systems are ubiquitous across all critical infrastructure industries, such as Oil and Gas, Automotive, Energy, Water Utilities, and Transportation. OT infrastructure is very vital to any nation’s security to ensure the delivery of essential services to its citizens. The ever-increasing attacks on critical infrastructure, such as the Colonial Pipeline attack in the US, the cyber-attack on Ukraine’s power grid causing outages, and the cyber-attack on Toyota’s production plants in Japan are only some of the very few examples of these. Given the absolute criticality of this domain, OT cybersecurity is getting the highest priority from all nations, such as the creation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy in the US and the EU Cybersecurity Act.
In this article, a leading OT Cybersecurity expert from the US, Krishna Tata shares his learnings on the need for building comprehensive OT cybersecurity programs specifically for the automotive industry. Krishna is a highly regarded OT cybersecurity expert who has built several cybersecurity products for the IBM security products portfolio, including award-winning ones such as IBM QRADAR SIEM and SOAR and has built their OT security practice, which is one of the largest teams of OT security professionals in the world. Krishna has been engaged in cutting-edge OT cybersecurity product development and research at IBM and has been helping critical infrastructure clients since 2015 in addressing critical security issues.
