ASPI and Thales are delighted to invite you to attend the launch of the upcoming report ‘Protecting critical national infrastructure in an era of IT and OT convergence’ by Rajiv Shah. The report will include a panel discussion followed by a Q&A with the audience.

This report presents the recent research carried out on behalf of ASPI, along with a review of other data to explore the current risks, maturity of understanding and approach to managing these in the Australian critical national infrastructure, identifying gaps to be addressed

Today we are seeing an increasing convergence between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) - more and more devices are becoming interconnected, where these devices monitor and/or control physical effects. However, this brings new risks - a cyber attack on OT systems can have serious physical consequences, and for a critical national infrastructure provider, this could have a major impact on our national security. Insecure OT systems can also prove a backdoor to allow attackers to penetrate IT systems that were otherwise thought to be well-secured.

The lessons learnt from IT security over the last decade is that impacts are severe unless security is considered upfront and threats managed proactively rather than reactively. As the convergence of IT and OT gathers pace in our critical national infrastructure, urgent action across is needed to address risks introduced by the IT/OT convergence – we will present our recommendations for the top priorities for government, industry and security professionals.

A drinks and canape reception will conclude the event.