The operational technology (OT) cyber security market is maturing rapidly. Standards are being broadly adopted, regulatory requirements, such as NIS2 and NERC-CIP, are mandates, and the market is flooded with point solutions targeting specific risks. With this progress, familiar challenges persist – ones that echo the early days of information technology (IT) security. Chief among them are fragmentation, complexity and lack of enterprise-wide scalability.
OT cyber security still feels like the responsibility of a few experts. If you want to understand it, you’re told to go talk to a specialist. This mindset reinforces silos and limits progress towards more holistic program and governance models, making it harder for organizations to prioritize, manage and respond to today’s fast-evolving threat landscape. More importantly, it overlooks a crucial truth that cyber security is not just a job for experts. Everyone in the enterprise has a role – and can contribute to making the business more secure.
Turning risk into a business conversation
To make real progress, industrial companies can consider OT cyber security not as a siloed technical problem, but as an enterprise-wide concern. This shift demands a culture change – a topic centered on accessibility, awareness and collaboration. In other words, how do we make OT security and risk more relatable?
The solution can be framed around a simple, powerful concept – threat modelling, which is also not just for the cyber security experts. It is a way for anyone in the business, regardless of technical background or position in the business, to be able identify risk by asking three key questions:
- What must always work?
- What must never happen?
- If something breaks, how might the impact cascade across the enterprise?
This approach turns cyber security into a relatable, business-focused discussion. A recent ransomware breach led a major pipeline operator to shutdown back-office systems – this measure was taken to isolate IT systems from OT fuel delivery infrastructure (a common approach under uncertain circumstances). A significant consequence of managing the IT risk resulted in a six-day disruption of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and the impact cascaded out from there.
In this case, the disruption of communication between operational and information systems resulted in an inability to deliver, track and invoice.
Would a more holistic approach to business risk threat modeling have identified the need for alternative processes and procedure to assure the continuity of the business and the needs of the customers they serve? With broader engagement around “what must always work” and “what must never happen,” we can make cyber security and business risk an enterprise topic.
Organizations must these conversations – From your vantage point in the business, think about what would happen if your systems and operations were disrupted for a prolonged period. Who would be affected? What would the financial, brand and societal impact be?
The idea is not to create fear, but to normalize cyber security thinking across the organization. In fact, some energy companies are already taking a holistic approach, integrating cyber risk into broader business risk models and driving enterprise-level threat modelling.
Cyber security isn’t just about technology; it’s about business resilience.
Ensuring business continuity
Preparedness is the foundation of effective cyber security. Disruption is not just a technical issue; it is a business risk. That is why continuity planning matters and business should ask themselves: Do you know which systems must keep running? Are there backup processes in place? Can you assess the financial impact of downtime?
Business continuity goes beyond having backups. It requires cross-functional coordination, clear response plans, and a shared understanding of critical operations – from OT systems on the plant floor to billing and logistics in the back office and beyond.
The continuity found in cyber resilience means being able to adapt and recover quickly, without halting asset or business operations. This is only possible when cyber security is treated as a business-wide responsibility.
When OT and IT leaders collaborate with finance, marketing and operations, security becomes part of how the organization works, not just how it protects itself. This shift in mindset is what enables companies to be secure, efficiently recover from a security event, and best manage the impact of cyber risk.
