For decades, the office environment had been on an Ethernet network, the factory floor had operated independently on fieldbus, and each were happily separate in their operations and needed little contact with one another. Now, with the proliferation of Ethernet on the industrial side and the organization converging into a single data network spanning both information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), the conflict seems inevitable—which department gets oversight and control of the Ethernet network?

Many of us are familiar with the infamous video of the hacking at the Ukrainian power station in December, 2015 that caused a blackout impacting a quarter million people in the area. As the hackers remotely took control of their workstations, the plant systems operators could do little more than record for posterity the activity that they saw on their PC screens with their mobile phones. So now, any of us can go over to YouTube and watch in horror along with the operators as their cursor moves around their screen, maliciously clicking commands and tripping breakers in various substations. Of significant interest, as they helplessly watch the screen activity that was advancing their power station inevitably toward doom, we hear one operator say to the other “We should call the IT guys,” to which his colleague quickly replies “What if it’s the IT guys doing this?”

Who’s responsible for industrial cyber security in your organization? Whether it’s Information Technology (IT) or a cross-functional ICS operations and process control group – often labeled Operations Technology (OT) – they likely have incompatible approaches to resolving cyber security risk.

The Internet of Things means more and more devices are being connected to industrial networks. And these “things” aren’t just the controllers and related computers “owned” by the OT department or the computers and network devices “owned” by the IT department.

There’s no escaping the push to secure industrial applications. The end of support for Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system is just the latest situation that contributes to the need to make sure that industrial networks have cyber security measures in place.