Europe leads in cybersecurity law enforcement for critical infrastructure

The new Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive demands that critical infrastructure operators—including agriculture, energy, transport, pharmaceuticals, and even water and waste management—address cybersecurity, and will push them toward allocating budget to protect their infrastructure. Non-compliers will face significant financial repercussions.

According to ABI Research, the UK is currently the top spender for cybersecurity, but the most cyber-prepared country is Norway. For all European players, forthcoming issues will revolve around cost and the complexity of implementation. The IT sector is already experiencing a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. For industrial settings, the gap between OT and IT skill sets is ominous, and a worrisome state of affairs.

Operators will likely have to lean heavily on outside security firms to help them follow proper implementation and execution. While ABI Research predicts that this will boost the OT security space, including cyber insurance and cyber auditing markets in the years ahead, it will also likely mean that it takes a few years for operators to get this right.