It seems that hardly a day passes without news of yet another security breach. No industry appears to be immune. One of the troublesome aspects is that hackers have been able not just to obtain confidential data on organizations’ customers, but also to penetrate and halt industrial operations – which could have far graver implications for individuals and even larger communities.

Traditionally, organizations have separated their back-end industrial operations from their front-office ones. The networks serving the operations were kept isolated, as there was really no communication between those devices and the outside world. However, with rapid digitization and increased interest in using automation and analytics to increase production, improve worker safety, and perform predictive maintenance, for which operational data is critical, those networks are now increasingly being connected to the enterprise.