Safety and environment drive cyber security market

Dedham, Massachusetts –  The Industrial Control System (ICS) market is driven by not only business risk but also by safety and environmental concerns.  In addition, national risks are becoming more of a concern and entering the risk equation in the form of regulations, compliance, and the possibility of financial penalties.

“ICS cyber security is extremely dynamic, requiring constant attention and quickly bringing today’s practices in question.  This, along with growing adoption of corporate IT security components for ICS, will assure a steady market growth,” according to VP of emerging technologies Bob Mick, author of ARC’s “ICS Cyber Security Worldwide Outlook”.

There are significant factors that make ICS cyber security difficult for suppliers as well as end users.  An ICS cyber security solution is not a single product; instead it is a combination of architecture, practices, behavior, security components – both hardware and software – and 3rd party services.  Of course, there are many possible solutions to this puzzle, with different costs.  Some “best practices” have surfaced, but actual solutions must take into account business situation and risk.

Each of the components (firewalls, antivirus, etc.) that comprise an ICS cyber security solution have been researched by others from a product perspective.  These studies are too general to use during ICS related planning.  ARC’s research approaches security from an ICS perspective only and is based on ARC’s extensive ICS market database.  The intent was to stimulate increased attention and investment in developing innovative ICS cyber security solutions and best practices.

Businesses have been steadily increasing the security of their ICS systems through the adoption of selected, off-the-shelf, corporate IT security components.  Firewalls and antivirus software are now common, bringing the industry to a base level of protection.  However, recent increases in international criminal activity and even suspicions of government involvement are raising the bar again.  This will account for steady market growth overall, and more rapid growth in some industries.