Legacy does not mean unnecessary
Old equipment in a plant is usually old because it works, not because nobody got round to it.
The machine has been making the product reliably for twenty years. Replacing it means downtime, capital, recommissioning and risk to a process that currently performs. Treating legacy as negligence misreads the economics entirely, and it is the fastest way for a security team to lose the engineers it needs on side.
More on OT and ICS
- A cyber command can have physical consequencesThe keystroke has a lever on the end
- Patching OT requires process contextThe patch waits for the plant
- Segmentation protects process zonesBulkheads, not one big hold
- Remote maintenance changes the plant perimeterThe fence now goes round their kitchen table
- Process anomalies can be security signalsThe plant noticed first
- Asset discovery must not disrupt fragile systemsListen to it, do not knock on it