Combating the Rising Cyber Threat Against ICS Industrial control systems (ICS) play an essential role in keeping the country moving by managing software and hardware in critical national infrastructure (CNI) sectors, including energy and water, as well as critical manufacturing areas such as pharmaceutical and automotive. ICS is an umbrella term that covers several different kinds of systems and devices, including supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and engineering workstations (EWS). These systems face a continual threat of attack from nation-state actors, corporate espionage, and more well-resourced and ambitious criminals. Not only are they under threat, but the risk is growing.