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Until recently , most operational technology ( OT ) processes ran on isolated networks with specific protocols . This tended to make security a simple matter of physical protection . The separation of the OT network from everything else – the so-called air gap – made it easy to ignore the major cybersecurity headaches being faced in data centers and business networks .

Over the last decade , OT protocols have increasingly been encapsulated into internet-based routable protocols ( e . g ., Transmission Control Protocol [ TCP ]/ Internet Protocol [ IP ]). Industrial networks are now converging with the IT network as well . To use Purdue model terminology , while the physical process , operations , and control zones are still segregated from the business and logistics zone , as the traditional air gap is vanishing . A demilitarized zone with a network firewall is put in place to keep them apart . However , an ever-increasing amount of information now needs to pass between these zones . As ingress and egress data flows to OT systems increase , threat exposure also increases .

In parallel to these developments , there have been other technological shifts such as miniaturization of sensors and controls as well as applied artificial intelligence ( AI ) to help make sense of huge amounts of data supplied by OT systems . Perhaps most significant from the standpoint of security is wireless connectivity , which can allow direct connection to the internet , bypassing traditional OT network connections . Many industrial tools and devices now have built-in wireless connectivity , allowing process data and telemetry to be directly uploaded to business information systems or to supply maintenance data directly to the manufacturer of the system . p

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