How Maturing Your Security Posture Drives Innovation and Protects Critical Infrastructure

Across industrial organizations today, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) form the backbone of critical operations for sectors like energy, manufacturing, and utilities. These systems manage everything from production lines to power grids, ensuring the smooth running of vital infrastructure. However, as digital transformation accelerates and cyber threats evolve, securing these industrial environments have become more complex. This is why many organizations are now embarking on a ICS maturity journey, an approach to improving the security, efficiency, and resilience of their critical systems. Binde will walk us through the importance of continuously addressing ICS security and which assessments to look into first.

Why ICS Security Matters

At its core, the ICS maturity journey is about aligning the management of industrial systems with both business goals and modern security needs. Karl Binde, Director of Advisory Services at Omny, highlights a growing trend:

 “We see organizations moving fast, especially as they modernize their operations. They want to increase automation, adopt advanced analytics, increase innovation and deploy new technology to improve production.” 

At the same time, many companies find themselves struggling to balance the desire for more automation with the additional need for more robust security. Binde explains that organizations are often stuck seeing security as a blocker rather than as an enabler. However, if done correctly, Binde emphasizes that industrial security driven around OT and ICS “can unlock new possibilities, allowing organizations to innovate securely while managing risks effectively.”

Common security challenges in industry

The ICS maturity journey offers great potential, but it is not without obstacles. Binde shares what he sees as the most common recurring challenges that companies face as they advance through different stages of maturity: 

• Legacy systems: Many industrial environments are still reliant on older equipment designed before modern cybersecurity standards. These systems were often primarily secured by physical isolation, a strategy that no longer holds in today’s connected, digital world. 
• Remote access and identity management: The need for remote monitoring and control has grown, especially in sectors like renewable energy. Highly specialized equipment and machines require maintenance and support from highly specialized personnel from third-parties and it can be difficult and costly to bring them on site. Hence, this increases the pressure on secure remote access solutions and introduces complex challenges around access management and ensuring remote operations remain secure. 
• Network security: Isolating critical assets on separate, secure networks is easier said than done. Many organizations lack the visibility and control needed to ensure that their assets are protected. 
• Supply chain security: Organizations are often dependent on third parties, which introduces new vulnerabilities. Even if you take steps to protect your own operation, being too reliant on less secure partners can have major consequences on a business.
• IT/OT convergence: Industrial organizations need to handle this challenge holistically and execute on strategies that integrate security across both domains.

The role of compliance and risk management

Compliance is another key driver in the ICS maturity journey, particularly with regulations like NIS2 coming into effect. However, Binde urges companies to move beyond a reactive, compliance-driven approach.

“Many organizations are uncertain about their current state and what they need to ‘fix’ to comply and manage their risks. That’s where assessments come into play – as knowing where you are is the first step to knowing where to go and how to be more proactive rather than reactive,” he says. 

Rather than viewing compliance as the end goal, a risk-based approach is about aligning security efforts with business priorities. For example, understanding which machines or systems are most critical can help businesses prioritize where to allocate resources for protection. As Binde points out, “When we do business impact assessments, sometimes there’s a wow effect – as in, we learn that if this one system stops, an entire business unit will sit idle until it’s fixed.”

Looking into the future of ICS security 

As both digitalization and cyber threat levels increase, Binde sees organizations shifting towards a more integrated and proactive security posture. ICS security will increasingly become a facilitator of business operations, not just an IT or OT concern, but rather an organization-wide focus. “It’s about managing complexity,” Binde explains. “A top-down and bottom-up approach, aligning ICS security with business goals and operational excellence.”

For companies at the beginning of their ICS maturity journey, the first step is clear: understand where you stand. Binde advises organizations to conduct thorough assessments to identify gaps and potential risks. From there it’s about taking it step-by-step, improving security gradually but consistently. 

“The ICS journey is not just about adopting the latest technology or complying with regulations,” adds Binde, “it’s about building a security foundation that enables innovation, operational efficiency, and resilience in the face of evolving threats. And as organizations move through this journey, partnering with experts who can offer tailored assessments and strategic guidance becomes key.”

To help your organization navigate its security  maturity journey, Omny Advisory Services offers a comprehensive suite of assessments, including maturity assessments, control assessments, and business impact assessments. Start with a look into our catalogue  to understand where you are and take actions now towards a more secure, efficient future.