Advanced Manufacturing Barcelona – How are companies in the industrial sector adapting to cybersecurity?

José Valiente – Companies and industrialists are adapting to this need to address cybersecurity mainly slowly. We have been trying to convince, raise awareness and help these organisations for many years at the CCI (the Centre for Industrial Cybersecurity), but the truth is that there have been incidents, some very relevant, some worrying, but still, some of the industrial companies still do not have something that is necessary, which is a person in charge, an organisational manager who is responsible for managing this risk.

Some large organisations are starting to have this professional, but there are very few in the market and it is difficult to find someone who can carry out or have this responsibility in cybersecurity.

As soon as they start to have a person in charge, they start to work much more on solving the problem of cybersecurity. Unfortunately, many organisations are experiencing incidents and that is when they start to address cybersecurity. So, the answer would be that it will depend a lot on what has happened to them in terms of incidents and whether the regulations that are in place are forcing them to have to worry about cybersecurity.

AMB – What are the trends of the future in relation to automation?

José Valiente – Future trends in terms of tackling cybersecurity have a lot to do with industrial digitalisation. Nowadays, there is an increasing convergence between the IT and technical fields. Logically, there are IT managers who have been looking at cybersecurity for a long time and, as we are saying, those in the tech area are much slower, have less capacity, fewer resources and less knowledge. So I think the trend is that there will not really be a separate area, but that this area will also converge and there will be a technology both in the IT area and in the operational technology area.

AMB- After your long experience in the sector, what are the biggest lessons you have learned?

José Valiente- The biggest lessons learned in the field of industrial cybersecurity and based on industrial digitalisation have to do mainly with the difference that exists between information technology professionals and operational technology professionals. An industrial engineer or a person in charge of operational maintenance is far removed from cybersecurity because they have not really had any problems, although some organisations are starting to have problems, so I think that in our experience we believe that we need to bring these two areas closer together and above all make an effort in those professionals in the field of operational technologies, with training, capacity building, creating a culture, a culture of cybersecurity. In the end, all of this will result in a better use of the plant in terms of less loss of availability, improved quality, because we must also be concerned about integrity, apart from the technologies, I think it is essential to bring these two worlds closer together and train them and create a culture of cybersecurity.