Securing Critical Infrastructure in the Era of Digitalization: Challenges and Strategies for Safeguarding Operational Technology

Today's digitally driven critical infrastructure relies heavily on operational technology (OT), and this study tackles the urgent need to protect these systems.Threats to critical infrastructure might be exacerbated by the merging of operational and information technologies.This study uses a literature review approach to argue for strict security precautions by analyzing the current and future state of cyber threats, OT vulnerabilities, and actual cyber occurrences.A search was carried out on peer-reviewed articles, English language articles published between 2016 and 2023 reporting on critical infrastructure, cyber threats, OT vulnerabilities, and actual cyber occurrences.The search used vocabulary terms such as digitalization era, critical infrastructure, operational technology and information technology.Reference lists of articles were reviewed to identify additional studies.A total of 10 articles and case studies were included in this review.It was found that effective protection of Critical Infrastructure depends on teamwork; important factors in the development of the critical infrastructure cybersecurity environment include regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements; public-private partnerships (PPPs) create a synergy that improves the safety of critical infrastructure.