OT systems face escalating cyber threats that endanger critical infrastructure
Operational technology (OT) is the silent engine behind everything we rely on, electricity, food supplies, clean water, transportation. It doesn’t get as much attention as IT, but when it breaks, we notice. Fast. And right now, threat levels aimed at OT are scaling up.
Cyberattacks aren’t confined to email inboxes or mobile apps anymore. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware event in 2021 proved that with gas shortages and national panic. That was a red flag. Since then, the data has only reinforced how serious this problem is. Fortinet found that 82% of organizations saw intrusions into their OT systems over the past year. That’s jumped from 49% just two years earlier. If you’re running any part of your operations on legacy OT, or even modern, connected OT, this should be on your radar.
What’s changed isn’t just the frequency. It’s the scale and precision of these attacks. OT environments often lack the layers of protection common in IT, and attackers know that. There’s often minimal segmentation, outdated access controls, and an overreliance on systems assumed to be “offline” or isolated. They aren’t anymore. That assumption is dead.
C-suite leaders need to view this not as an edge-case problem, but as a primary business continuity issue. Infrastructure can be attacked digitally now, just as easily as it could once be physically disrupted. If your company provides something the public depends on, energy, water, logistics, food, it’s not a question of ‘if’ your OT will come under attack. It’s when.
There’s no point in panic. But it’s time for clear thinking and decisive action.
Potential OT-related cyber incidents could result in catastrophic financial losses
Chief executives and board members are good at managing known risks. What’s dangerous is the blind spot, especially when the consequences run into billions.
According to a joint report from Dragos and Marsh McLennan, OT cybersecurity failures could cost the global economy close to $330 billion in a single year. We’re not talking incremental disruptions here. We’re talking about multi-sector breakdowns, driven primarily by business interruption, projected to account for $172 billion of that amount. For context, the average annual global OT risk currently sits at $12.7 billion. So when we talk about a possible 0.4% chance of a high-impact cyber scenario hitting in 2026, we’re facing a probability that’s low in number but massive in consequence.
Here’s the deeper issue. Most organizations still think about cybersecurity like it’s an IT function, firewalls, emails, phishing. That approach deprioritizes OT, which often falls outside the modern cybersecurity perimeter. This divide is the Achilles’ heel. Businesses that fail to reframe OT security as a core element of enterprise risk are walking straight toward hidden exposure.
This isn’t about spending more. It’s about spending right. When your OT systems aren’t protected, you’re essentially leaving the main engine of your operations open to manipulation. That could be a ransomware lockdown. Or sabotage. Or a silent, sustained system breach that no one notices until it’s too late.
There’s upside here if you move fast. Strengthening OT defenses now, even with foundational strategies like network segmentation and basic patching, can drastically reduce risk exposure. But executives need to drive the shift. If mandates don’t come from the top, they rarely stick.
A global cybersecurity alliance has issued comprehensive guidelines
Governments are now stepping in to address long-standing gaps in OT asset management. Agencies from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and New Zealand have released clear guidance focused on operational resilience and security fundamentals. Their aim is specific: give critical infrastructure operators actionable strategies to maintain accurate OT asset inventories.
The guidelines go beyond basic documentation. They emphasize assessing asset risk, prioritizing security controls, applying secure-by-design principles, and managing hardware life cycles, including spare parts planning. They encourage evaluating the costs of system upgrades against the potential risks of outages, and pushing updates through disciplined change management practices.
This matters because visibility into your OT asset landscape determines how effectively you can secure it. You can’t patch what you can’t see. And you can’t assess risk when your inventory is static, outdated, or approximated.
For decision-makers, this guidance doesn’t require massive restructuring. It requires decisiveness. Assign accountability for asset tracking, back it with process discipline, and align investment with operational criticality. When asset intelligence is centralized and continuously updated, your teams can act faster and more accurately. That means faster patches, better segmentation, fewer surprises, and ultimately, stronger operational continuity.
Moving forward, don’t treat OT inventory as a compliance box to check. Treat it as a strategic input into your broader risk and operations roadmap. That shift in thinking is where security gains real momentum.
Key takeaways for leaders
- OT exposure is accelerating: Operational technology is facing a surge in cyber intrusions, with 82% of organizations reporting incidents, up from 49% just two years ago. Leaders must reassess their OT risk postures and elevate OT to the same security priority as IT.
- Financial risk is being underestimated: OT-related cyber events could cost the global economy up to $330 billion annually, mostly due to business interruptions. Executives should align risk assessments and spending to reflect OT’s true impact on continuity and revenue.
- Active RCE exploits demand urgent fixes: A critical flaw in the Erlang platform is under active exploitation, enabling attackers to gain system control without authentication. Leaders must direct immediate patching and ensure continuous vulnerability monitoring in OT environments.
- Delayed responses to known flaws are costly: Citrix NetScaler vulnerabilities were exploited weeks before disclosure, targeting infrastructure providers around the world. Decision-makers should expedite patch cycles and enforce real-time vulnerability tracking.
- Flawed encryption in industrial protocols weakens defenses: OPC UA, a commonly used industrial protocol, contains serious flaws allowing authentication bypasses across multiple products. Leaders must audit vendor implementations, enforce secure configurations, and apply updates systemwide.
- Global agencies are calling for better OT asset control: New international guidance highlights the need for thorough, real-time OT asset inventories to strengthen security. Executives should assign ownership of asset visibility and tie it directly to risk and incident response strategies.
