Focus Area IT/OT Integration

Focus Area leader: Habtamu Abie, Norsk Regnesentral.

The main objective of the IT-OT Integration Focus Area is research to address the security challenges arising from the integration of IT and OT systems. It aims at facilitating different stakeholders to cooperate to ensure end-to-end security for integrating IT-OT in real-time to achieve secure digitalization. IT-OT Integration allows maximization, optimization, and customization of relevant tasks. It provides a wide range of functional services for better critical sectors. The modern technological advancements such as AI, IoT, IIoT, 5G, digital twins, augmented reality, cognitive/cloud/edge computing boost the IT-OT integration. This convergence is however leading to new challenges in cybersecurity which is the focus of this focus area.

The IT-OT Integration focus area aims: 

• To develop cross-disciplinary spinoffs projects, to stimulate a progression from individual task leaders with an interest in a common theme into teams pitching, “a highly innovative way to create novel projects better oriented towards societal challenges and urgent questions”. 
• To support built-in identity and trust management systems which makes it easy to integrate and share IT-OT system information across IT-OT environments. 
• To boost the secure generation, transmission and processing electronic health records to streamline diagnosis across channels. 
• To improve grid reliability, security and efficiency in communications and advanced applications. 
• To build a vibrant ecosystem as one of the vehicles for building up the community of practice of the Network of Competence Center in Norway.

To achieve this the IT-OT integration focus area has developed the following four supporting pillars: 

1. New research-based Innovation to identify the needs for new research-based innovations and knowledge such as unified modelling of IT-OT for unified visibility, enhancing automation of cybersecurity decision-making, real-time automated data collection and sharing, secure supply chain management, and assessing dynamic risks, vulnerabilities and threats.  
2. Analysis capability to enhance analytical capability to identify gaps in existing research and solutions with innovation potential through AI analytics, desk research, methods for identifying the gaps in cybersecurity, systematic survey of state-of-the-art and beyond, and complimentary analysis, analysis of overlaps and synergies with other tasks. 
3. Amplify to maximize/magnify the impact of secure IT-OT integration activities. Maximize the innovation and analysis capabilities, enhancing cybersecurity in IT-OT integration, spinoff innovation projects, synergies, exploitation and dissemination, magnify cybersecurity knowledge circulation and innovative ideas and products leading to even more secure and safe IT-OT environments.
4. Ecosystem to build a vibrant ecosystem of stakeholders around IT-OT integration to provide sustainability, end-to-end security, etc. through strengthening collaboration between partners and beyond multiple stakeholders, enabling technologies and the application of those technologies, and forging stronger partnerships to magnify IT-OT cybersecurity knowledge. 

​​​​​The main initiative within the Focus Area of IT/OT Integration is NESIOT.

Norwegian Ecosystem for Secure IT-OT Integration (NESIOT) brings together multiple stakeholders such as sensor/devices manufacturers, telecom operators, cloud and data analysis solution providers, industrial system operators etc., and to exploit enabling technologies and the secure application of those technologies.

Information technology (IT)-Operational Technology (OT) Integration is one of these focus areas that aims at facilitating different stakeholders to cooperate to ensure end-to-end security for integrating IT-OT in real-time. IT-OT Integration allows maximization, optimization, and customization of relevant tasks, and provides a wide range of functional services for better critical sectors, economy, and society. The modern technological advancements such as AI, IIoT, 5G, Digital Twins, Augmented Reality, Cognitive/Cloud/Edge computing boost the IT-OT integration. 

Objectives

The main objective of NESIOT is to create synergies and foster emerging solutions for secure IT-OT Integration via cross-sectors collaboration and innovation:

1. Strengthening collaboration between NORCICS partners and beyond through secure IT&OT Integration
2. Achieving secure digitalization of industry through IT-OT integration>
3. Closing the IT-OT cybersecurity vulnerability gap
4. Increasing unified visibility of secure IT-OT integration
5. Matchmaking for both national and international project spin-offs
6. Organizing yearly national conference/workshop, involving both Norwegian policy makers, industry and academics, practitioners, and representatives from the research council of Norway
7. Organizing bi-annually meetings