With a rise in sophisticated cyber-attacks and threats on control networks, there is a growing market for industrial control systems (ICS) security to secure key plants from vulnerabilities.
A new report by MarketsandMarkets defines ICS security as something that enables organizations to secure their automation processes and related critical information from cyber intrusions, allowing undisrupted and sustained productivity of utilities, grids, transportation systems and the manufacturing sector.
According to the report, the global ICS security market (including network security solutions as well as professional services) was worth $6.18 billion in 2014 and will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 percent through 2019, reaching a value of $8.73 billion by the end of the forecast period.
Hi-tech automation and control system security solutions are available which offer highly sophisticated intrusion detection and prevention, as well as encryption and continuous monitoring. Many companies also provide network security and cyber security solutions for preventing complicated cyber attacks, thus securing plants from such attacks and keeping processes uninterrupted, MarketsandMarkets said.
In the next few years, the ICS security market is expected to be driven by the growing demand for process automation and remote control, which has forced companies to expand their existing infrastructure and deal with a variety of challenges such as cyber attacks, insider criminal activities and global competition.
Power, energy and utilities represent the largest segment for ICS security solutions, followed by commercial, communication systems and manufacturing industry applications.
The report takes a detailed look at the global ICS security market, with an analysis by ICS security technologies including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Intrusion Detection Systems/Intrusion Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), firewall, antivirus/malware, virtualization security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), application whitelisting, Unified Threat Management (UTM), update and patch management and database activity monitoring.
Professional services in this field include risk management services, design, integration and consulting, managed services, policy and procedure consulting and audit and reporting services.