Industrial control systems (ICSs) across numerous industry verticals are increasingly migrating from serial communications to Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications as Operational Technology (OT) networks are integrated with Information Technology (IT) networks for enhanced performance, reliability, efficiencies and other operational advantages.
The convergence of OT and IT networks, however, has introduced new challenges and threats to ICSs. Because ICSs monitor and control physical processes in the real world, they have more stringent response requirements for determinism and real-time data transfer.