Pike Research reports on the heightened awareness of security that has arisen from attacks such as the Stuxnet computer worm.
This has dispelled the "security by obscurity" myth that had previously prevailed among some ICS users.
An ICS is an automated reporting application capable of using sensors to return data about an industrial process.
Different functions of the systems include quality control during manufacture or chemical refinement, along with managing resource efficiency in water-thirsty or power-hungry industries.
Pike Research industry analyst Bob Lockhart suggests the Stuxnet example could have some administrators looking again at systems they previously thought too obscure to suffer a serious or large-scale attack.
The research firm expects to see spending on the security of telecommunications and computer operations in the electricity smart grid sector to account for 35 per cent of revenues by 2015.
