In the beginning, people created computers. A few years later, people decided to create malware. Firstly, we need to clarify what malware, virus, worms and trojans are. Malware is a catch-all phrase for all malicious software regardless of how it operates; viruses, worms and trojans fall under the malware term. Viruses spread through computers, firstly through physical input devices and now through the Internet. It usually exists in executable files, meaning it can be on your computer without causing any negative effects until it is run. A worm is a type of virus that can spread without help from a person, for example travelling through an open port in your computer to other computers on your network. Finally, a trojan is a program that allows the creator access to your computer by pretending to be a genuine application (think about the trojan horse).
Purpose-built OT Software Trumps Repurposed IT Software
#AwenAsks
For the next 5 weeks, we will be releasing questions on LinkedIn about a whole variety of things including cyber security, software, industry 4.0 and much more. We are tagging it with #AwenAsks, or you can view the questions directly via our Awen Collective LinkedIn company page.
Week Commencing 16th November 2020
In the week commencing the 16th of November 2020 we asked two questions on LinkedIn:
Would you be comfortable using repurposed IT tools on your OT / ICS / SCADA / IIoT system?
Do people in engineering departments think differently to those in IT departments?
The purpose of asking these two questions was to understand more about how software in both IT and OT worlds are treated.
These were our first two LinkedIn polls, so we were not expecting to receive a large number of responses. Question 1 of this week received 10 votes within 1 week. Question 2 received 11 votes within 1 week. The questions for the following week have already been released, and have received more votes than our first week.
What were the results?
Question 1
With a 0% for yes, and a 50% as no, this indicates to us that people (at least those who we are well connected with) recognise that there are differences between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). As such, our requirements for software which interacts with these systems should be treated differently.
The 40% who voted “Maybe” and 10% that voted “I don’t know” most likely either have particular scenarios in mind (e.g. there may be particular OT devices which are directly controlled by IT software), or are unfamiliar with the differences between IT and OT.
Question 2
The result for “do people in engineering departments think differently to those in IT departments” - posed more as a process-thinking, rather than a belief-thinking question, shows a resounding yes response at 82%. Within this small sample, people do believe that engineers think differently from a process perspective to IT staff.
This most likely hints towards user experience (and also data dashboard) requirements of IT software and software that handles OT, are very much different. The approach to these members of staff should also be different.
Summary and Why are we interested?
In summary it seems that for Operational Technologies (OT), software developed specifically for OT trumps repurposed IT software. This software should not only be built from the ground up for OT, but should be tailored to the specific needs of engineering.
When we started Awen Collective in 2017, we discovered anecdotal evidence of this, and it shaped the way that we developed our software products Profile and Dot. We therefore strongly believe that purpose-built OT software trumps repurposed IT software.
However, while we believe that OT should have OT-specific tools, there is a place for IT involvement in the OT (especially in OT cyber security). The IT world has a lot more experience with, and mature products for, cyber security. So, at Awen we like to speak to people from across an industrial business - OT, IT, Cyber, Risk and the executives - just so that we can get a deeper understanding in how we can best support now and in the future.
If this sounds interesting, then please do feel free to contact us.
Questions released during week of 23rd November 2020
Does the geographic origin of software matter to you? [Opened 24th November 2020] [Closes 1st December 2020]
How much do you think politics plays a role in cyber security? [Opened 26th November 2020] [Closes 3rd December 2020]
The results were analysed by Daniel Lewis, CEO & Cofounder of Awen Collective.