To get the most out of this book, ideally you should have some experience with supporting an Industrial control system and the network technologies it uses. The topics covered in this book will resonate more if you have lived the struggle to have to update, maintain and secure an ICS that is in full production. That's not to say that you will be lost if you don’t have that experience. The book will cover all the background information needed to comprehend the technical exercises and security activities.

From a technical standpoint, access to a virtualization platform will be required if you want to follow along the exercises in the book. The virtualization solution can be VMware Workstation, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Oracle VirtualBox. Throughout the book I will point out where to find and how to configure specific applications, needed to follow along with the exercises.