[FoxNews] Experts warn legacy systems in water, electrical grid and food supply remain wide open to increasingly sophisticated hackers
"A primary obstacle in [operational technology] environments — whether in food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, oil, or utilities — is that facilities operate assets that are 15 to 20 years old," John Walsh, Senior Vice President and Field CTO for Government and Critical Industries at IGEL, said. "These systems are expensive, fragile, and essential to ongoing operations."
Decision makers at the companies Walsh works with don’t want to go through the hassle of taking key systems offline in order to upgrade and secure them further, operating under a "if it's not broken, don't fix it" mindset," he said.
But critical infrastructure, like almost every aspect of American society, is becoming increasingly integrated with technology and embedded into digital infrastructure, forcing cybersecurity firms to fundamentally shift strategies.
"One of the big things we have to consider is that we're moving from a thought process of security to resilience," Walsh said.
As AI helps hackers become more sophisticated, it’s no longer wise to attempt to completely shut them out of key systems, Walsh said. System operators are better off assuming the hackers are already there.
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