As industries increasingly seek to improve the security of operational technology (OT) assets, ensuring complete visibility into these systems is fundamental to strengthening security and operational resilience. Full OT asset visibility allows organizations to track, manage, and protect their critical infrastructure while enabling secure remote access, optimizing network monitoring, and reducing vulnerabilities.
Complete visibility of OT assets offers far-reaching advantages, allowing organizations to control their digital and physical environments while mitigating cybersecurity risks. By understanding all connected devices and their interactions, organizations can:
Visibility enables organizations to implement strict authentication protocols and access controls, ensuring only authorized personnel can remotely interact with OT systems. Reducing the risk of unauthorized access minimizes exposure to cyber threats. A few examples include:
Strict Authentication & Access Controls
Zero Trust Authentication Model: Requires multi-factor authentication (MFA) before granting remote access, ensuring only verified personnel interact with OT systems.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Assigns least privilege access rights, preventing remote users from accessing assets beyond their operational scope.
Network Access Control (NAC): validates a remote device's security posture before allowing access to critical OT environments, enforcing device compliance policies.
Secure Remote Connectivity & Encryption
Virtual Private Network (VPN) Hardening: Implements split tunneling restrictions and encrypted channels to prevent unauthorized external traffic from interacting with OT assets.
Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) Policies: Ensures remote connections use TLS 1.2 or higher encryption, preventing interception and unauthorized session hijacking.
Endpoint Security Enforcement: Requires device posture checks to validate security updates before permitting remote access to operational networks.
Continuous monitoring of OT assets provides real-time insights into network activity, allowing organizations to detect anomalies, unauthorized access attempts, and potential cyberattacks before they escalate into significant disruptions. A few examples include:
Advanced Threat Detection Capabilities
Behavioral Anomaly Detection: Uses machine learning-driven analytics to flag unexpected login attempts, unusual access patterns, or abnormal command executions.
Privilege Escalation Prevention: Monitors account permissions changes in real-time, preventing attackers from escalating unauthorized access privileges.
Automated Response & Isolation: This method uses intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and network segmentation rules to quarantine suspicious remote sessions, mitigating potential breaches automatically.
Knowing what assets exist and how they interact allows organizations to streamline maintenance schedules, reduce downtime, and optimize overall performance. Predictive analytics can also help anticipate failures, ensuring proactive maintenance and minimizing costly repairs.
Predictive Maintenance in Manufacturing
An automotive manufacturer can implement predictive analytics to monitor the health of OT assets, such as robotic arms on its assembly line. By analyzing sensor data, they could identify early signs of mechanical wear, schedule maintenance before failures, and reduce unscheduled downtime.
Smart Grid Optimization in the Energy Sector
An electric utility provider integrating OT asset visibility with IoT-based monitoring enables them to track transformer performance across its grid. By leveraging real-time analytics, the company can detect overheating issues and proactively replace aging components, preventing power outages and improving grid reliability.
Oil & Gas Pipeline Monitoring
An oil company deploys remote asset monitoring to track pipeline integrity. Using AI-driven predictive analytics, its system can identify pressure fluctuations that signal potential leaks. Early intervention prevents environmental hazards and potentially saves millions on repair costs.
Industrial Equipment Lifecycle Management
A chemical processing plant using OT visibility tools can assess the lifecycle of critical machinery. Analyzing historical performance data optimizes replacement schedules, reducing capital expenditures while ensuring continuous production.
Many industries require strict adherence to cybersecurity standards such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and IEC 62443. Full asset visibility ensures that organizations maintain accurate records, demonstrate compliance, and simplify audit processes.
Automated Compliance Reporting: Organizations can continuously use policy enforcement engines to assess compliance alignment.
Audit Logging & Forensics: Comprehensive log management solutions ensure security events are properly documented for regulatory audits.
Continuous Monitoring for Compliance Violations: Implementing automated rule-based alerts helps prevent configuration drift that may lead to non-compliance.
NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3: https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/82/r3/final: Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security
CISA's Enhanced Visibility and Hardening Guidance: https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/enhanced-visibility-and-hardening-guidance-communications-infrastructure
ISA/IEC 62443 Standards: https://gca.isa.org/blog/isa/iec-62443-referenced-in-cisas-cross-sector-cpgs
Understanding all connected devices allows organizations to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities before adversaries exploit them. This enables stronger security segmentation strategies, ensuring unprotected assets are secured or isolated from high-risk exposure.
Micro-Segmentation Strategies: Restrict access between high-risk and critical assets to prevent lateral movement within OT networks.
Runtime Monitoring for Rogue Devices: Detect unauthorized equipment that may bypass standard security controls.
Threat Intelligence Feeds: Integrate real-time threat intelligence to identify indicators of compromise (IoCs) within OT environments.
Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack (2021)
A cyberattack disrupted fuel distribution across the U.S. after an OT asset was compromised, leading to network shutdowns. This incident illustrates the need for continuous asset visibility and secure access controls to prevent unauthorized entry.
Triton Malware Attack on Industrial Control Systems (2017)
A targeted cyberattack attempted to manipulate a petrochemical facility's safety instrumented systems (SIS). Without full asset visibility, unauthorized modifications went undetected, posing safety and operational risks.
PRC-Affiliated Cyber Espionage on Telecommunications Infrastructure
A joint report by CISA, NSA, and FBI revealed Chinese-affiliated threat actors compromising OT networks worldwide. This underscores the importance of enhanced visibility and hardening strategies to detect and mitigate cyber threats.
Organizations can establish stronger security measures by prioritizing the complete visibility of OT assets, improving remote access protections, optimizing operations, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Visibility is not merely an advantage but a necessity for safeguarding critical infrastructure against evolving cyber threats. Continuous monitoring enables organizations to detect, isolate, and neutralize risks before they escalate, strengthening incident response and minimizing disruptions.
Beyond security, visibility enhances operational efficiency by streamlining asset management, optimizing maintenance schedules, and extending equipment lifecycles. Predictive insights allow organizations to allocate resources effectively, reducing costs and improving reliability. As regulatory frameworks evolve, maintaining visibility ensures compliance with industry guidance and standards such as NIST SP 800-82 and IEC 62443, simplifying audits and reinforcing best practices. Organizations that invest in visibility today will fortify their defenses and position themselves for long-term sustainability, operational agility, and innovation.
Dan Ricci is founder of the ICS Advisory Project, an open-source project to provide DHS CISA ICS Advisories data visualized as a dashboard to support vulnerability analysis for the OT/ICS community. He retired from the U.S. Navy after serving 21 years in the information warfare community.
