The world is advancing to Industry 4.0 in full swing, and this is a key driving force for IT/OT convergence.
Telstra recently commissioned technology research company Omdia to evaluate the state of IT/OT convergence in North Asia – including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – assessing maturity and highlighting the biggest benefits and opportunities in a paper entitled “Securing Industry 4.0: The Challenges and Opportunities of IT/OT Convergence”.
The paper assesses security operations (SecOps) readiness of firms to leverage emerging technologies under the Industry 4.0 revolution, while encapsulating how different sectors can leverage cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced technologies for commercial success. Surveying 250 technology executives and managers of medium- to large-sized organizations last year, the aim of the report is to give security executives the insights to bolster their organizational cybersecurity resilience and support their ongoing digital transformation projects in critical infrastructure sectors
Key takeaways:
- Nearly 40% of OT systems across many industries now connect to IT systems, and this proportion will increase to over 50% within a year. 85% of firms expect business benefits from IT/OT convergence, such as improvements to innovation, reliability, integrity, and revenue growth.
- That said, cybersecurity challenges are growing with integration activities, imposing significant financial damages to organizations – with 74% of attacks that impacted OT systems originated in IT. The majority (88%) of organizations have recently dealt with a security incident that directly affected OT production environments.
- Most (56%) of organizations in North Asia report basic or developing OT security levels, including IoT (based on NIST measurement).
For a quick look at the findings, check out this Summary Sheet
