The hardware and software on corporate and control system networks are similar, but other characteristics of the two networks differ. The essential difference is, not surprisingly, control. Control system networks control the physical world. Corporate systems manage data.
ICSs, especially in critical industrial infrastructures, control powerful, costly and often dangerous industrial processes, such as refineries, water purification systems and power plants. Modern societies depend on these processes to maintain standards of living and are generally protected by “guns, guards and gates” because any unauthorized/unqualified operation of these powerful systems, however briefly, represents an unacceptable risk.