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An OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy for Converged Environments

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EBOOK

Uncertainty, Undone. An OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy for Converged Environments

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An OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy for Converged Environments 2 EBOOK

An OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy for Converged Environments

Table of Contents

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1. Introduction 3

2. OT & IoT: The Fastest-Growing Contributors to Enterprise Cyber Risk 4

3. How Is OT Security Different From IT Security? 5

4. How Is IoT Security Different From IT Security? 6

5. Asset Visibility: The Starting Point of Your OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy 7 5.1 Don’t Overlook Wireless Security Sensors! 7

5.2 Endpoint Security Sensors 8

5.3 AI-Powered Asset Matching 8

6. Actionable Threat Intelligence That Covers IT, IoT and OT Threats 9 6.1 Curated Insights That Connect the Dots 9

6.2 Vulnerability Risk Scoring for When You Can’t Patch Everything 9

7. Risk Management for OT/IoT Environments 10

8. The Four Steps to Continuous OT/IoT Cyber Risk Management 11

9. SOC Efficiency: Close the OT/IoT Cybersecurity Gap 12

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Last year was a tipping point for OT cybersecurity, in terms of risk

consolidation under the CISO. According to a Fortinet survey, more than

half (52%) of surveyed organizations assigned CISO/CSO responsibility

for OT in 2025, up from just 16% in 2022. As owners of enterprise risk,

corporate CISOs must deliver on holistic strategies designed not only to

protect data integrity and availability but also to ensure cyber-physical

resilience — and articulate progress to their boards. Regulatory pressures

to consolidate cybersecurity risk have accelerated this trend.

Whether you’re a CISO newly assigned responsibility for OT and IoT risk, an

analyst trying to make sense of OT and IoT alerts in a newly merged SOC, or

a plant operator grappling with how to square new cybersecurity controls

with safety and efficiency concerns, the industrial cybersecurity curve can

be steep, especially since AI is changing the rules of engagement.

100% asset visibility with endpoint and wireless sensors

Holistic threat intelligence that connects the dots

Risk management for complex OT/IoT environments

SOC efficiency that closes the OT security skills gap

This eBook provides a primer on OT and IoT security, focusing

on four essential ways to leverage AI to build resilience:

52% of organizations gave the CISO/ CSO responsibility for OT in 2025, up from just 16% in 2022.

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1. Introduction In 2026, AI-Powered Cybersecurity for OT & IoT Is Table Stakes.

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Across industries, OT and IoT devices are a growing percentage

of total digital assets. A 2024 survey found that OT, IoT and other

specialized systems comprise 42% of enterprise assets — and

account for 64% of mid- to high-level enterprise risk.

In other words, the fastest-growing part of the enterprise

attack surface is the part CISOs understand the least and have

invested in the least, because IT cybersecurity tools don’t work

in OT and IoT environments. This explosion is raising questions

from key stakeholders.

2. OT & IoT: The Fastest-Growing Contributors to Enterprise Cyber Risk

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

OT, loT and other specialized systems comprise 42% of enterprise assets

- and account for 64% of mid- to high-level enterprise risk.

Top OT/IoT Cybersecurity Questions Being Asked

CISO:

What strategies and tools will help

us prevent and contain incidents?

Plant Operator:

How do I know your poeple and

tools won't break something

or cause downtime?

Board of Directors:

What's our risk? Could this happen to

us? Translate that into business terms.

SOC Analyst:

What do these alerts mean?

Which ones do I pay attention to?

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3. How Is OT Security Different From IT Security?

Here are the main ways that OT networks and devices are different and why IT security

tools don’t work with them:

Physical consequences:

IT manages information. OT controls physical processes, including the crown

jewels that drive revenue or provide essential public services. Often, they

operate continuously. If OT fails or is attacked, the stakes are higher, especially

for critical infrastructure.

Cybersecurity goals:

Forgotten-once-deployed, internet-exposed devices with no encryption and

unpatchable firmware are ideal pivot points to bypass perimeter defenses.

OT nuances:

IT solutions use standard operating systems, have frequent, automated

updates and are upgraded or replaced every 3 to 5 years. OT assets are built

to last 10 to 15 years and are “insecure by design.” Patches, if available, are

infrequent, and updates must occur during maintenance windows.

IT security tools don’t work because

they can’t read hundreds of proprietary

OT protocols, can’t perform deep packet

inspection (DPI) and can’t baseline

normal behavior to detect anomalies.

Moreover, IT endpoint agents that are

standard for antivirus protection and

patching don’t work on OT devices:

they’re heavyweight, disruptive and

aren’t trained on OT environments so

detect the wrong threats.

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4. How Is IoT Security Different From IT Security?

The Internet of Things is the ecosystem of internet-connected devices that collect,

share and act on data to make the modern world hum. IoT devices are everywhere and,

like OT devices, they’re typically insecure by design. Added challenges call for security

approaches more similar to OT than IT. For example:

The sheer volume of diverse IoT devices

— many of them wireless — combined

with weak or nonexistent security

controls render traditional IT security

tools ineffective.Proliferation of diverse devices:

An ever-expanding number and array of IoT devices, many wireless, use

stripped-down OSs and disparate protocols — and are often deployed ad hoc.

Devices that are unmanaged and insecure by design:

Forgotten-once-deployed, internet-exposed devices with no encryption and

unpatchable firmware are ideal pivot points to bypass perimeter defenses.

Weak identity and access controls:

Use of default passwords and lack of strong authentication procedures,

including for remote access, make IoT devices easy to exploit.

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Knowing what assets you have is the foundation of all cybersecurity

frameworks, regulations or programs. Indeed, full asset visibility

is the starting point for effective anomaly detection, vulnerability

management and, ultimately, risk management. To build a strong

OT/IoT strategy for converged environments, you need a complete,

automated inventory of wired and wireless OT, IoT and IT assets,

with deep insights into their behavior and communications.

That requires a combination of endpoint-to-air sensors, passive and

active data collection, OT/IoT protocol fluency and third-party IT

asset data — using AI to fill in missing details based on matching

devices, so you understand their risk.

5.1 Don’t Overlook Wireless Security Sensors!

Industrial organizations increasingly rely on wireless

communications for logistics, autonomous transport and

monitoring, yet they’re often the biggest remaining blind spot, even

in mature organizations. Intermittent operation of wireless devices

makes baselining normal behavior even harder.

OT/IoT wireless sensors can read protocols such as Bluetooth and

cellular but also LoRaWAN and ODID, and detect wireless threats such

as a deauth attack, rogue wireless access point (WAP) or wireless

network infiltration using compromised credentials.

In addition to gaining visibility of your wireless network, seeing

your endpoints is just as important. From there, AI-powered asset

matching ensures asset inventory accuracy. Let’s take a closer look.

5. Asset Visibility: The Starting Point of Your OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy

CELLULAR BUILDING AUTOMATION PROTOCOLS

WI-FI

BLUETOOTH

LORAWAN

DRONES

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION PROTOCOLS

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5.2 Endpoint Security Sensors

In IT security, endpoint agents are ubiquitous for anti-virus

protection and patching, but negative experiences deploying

them on OT devices have led to scarce adoption. Purpose-built

OT endpoint sensors overcome those objections, but they must

do more than collect asset details. They should also detect who’s

logged onto what machine when. Human interface devices (HIDs),

human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and other devices are where

people (including remote, third-party technicians) interact, and

thus where suspicious activity happens.

5.3 AI-Powered Asset Matching

AI is indispensable for enriching asset profiles to achieve near 100%

asset inventory accuracy. It can augment sensor-collected data

by inferring asset types and roles based on traffic patterns and

tapping a trove of details from matching devices to fill in missing

data fields.

Closing these gaps helps you zero in on essential information for

identifying the riskiest assets, such as which ones have known

exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs).

Information outlined in red is populated from AI-powered asset matching.

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6. Actionable Threat Intelligence That Covers IT, IoT and OT Threats

Most attacks impacting industrial environments originate from IT

compromises before pivoting into OT. IT threat intelligence is an

InfoSec staple, but it won’t detect the downstream impact of a

breach on OT and IoT assets.

Today’s industrial and critical infrastructure environments rely on a

mix OT, IT and IoT networks, so the threat detection tools monitoring

them need a steady feed of high-quality, holistic threat intelligence.

Insecure, unmanaged and internet-facing IoT devices are a favorite

attack vector for hacktivists.

Direct attacks on OT, while less common, are on the rise due to

advanced persistent threat groups and geopolitical tensions.

6.1 Curated Insights That Connect the Dots

Just as asset visibility requires more than a static database or

list of IP addresses, threat intelligence is more than a raw feed of

indicators of compromise (IOCs). Threat detection tools are only

as good as the threat intelligence that informs them. They need

detailed information in the form of Yara, packet and Sigma rules

as well as STIX and vulnerability indicators specific to OT and IoT

processes and devices.

As the term implies, the intelligence should be curated to deliver

actionable insights into behaviors and tactics of threat actors who

are actively targeting industrial environments.

6.2 Vulnerability Risk Scoring for When You Can’t Patch Everything

IT has its Patch Tuesday. In OT and IoT, it’s Patch Never, Next or Now.

You can’t patch everything, and sometimes you can’t patch at all.

That makes vulnerability management much more challenging.

AI-powered risk scoring is essential for prioritizing remediation.

In addition to identifying KEVs, it can factor in asset criticality,

exposure and what controls are already in place.

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7. Risk Management for OT/IoT Environments

OT/IoT cyber risk is the potential for loss of life, injuries, equipment

damage, environmental damage, revenue loss, and operational

disruptions caused by the failure, misuse, or cyber compromise

of connected OT/IoT systems that support industrial and critical

infrastructure operations. Managing risk for complex OT/IoT

environments requires a different strategy. There are four main

differences between how you assess IT risk vs. OT/IoT risk:

Cyber and operational risk

In industrial environments

we must account for both

cyber and operational

risk, including process

risk, because operational

anomalies unrelated to a

cyber threat are far more

common.

Until investigated, you don’t

know whether they involve

a cyberattack or not.

1 2 3 4 Interconnected risk

Every component in

an OT network is part

of a larger process in a

distributed environment.

If one machine has a

problem, you need to

know what it depends on

and what is depending

on it. From there, what

are the consequences

of an emergency

shutdown?

Consequence- based risk

In OT, risk assessment is

almost entirely focused

on consequences

such as physical safety,

the environment and

continuity of operations —

all of which impact revenue.

Whether you’re assessing

risk in a warehouse or on a

cargo ship, with OT you’re

always planning for your

worst day.

Vulnerabilities-only vs. multi-dimensional risk

In IT, device risk is based

solely on vulnerabilities,

and you can practically

eliminate risk with patching.

In OT, it’s multilayered —

and patching isn’t always

an option. In addition to

vulnerabilities, you need

to consider alert risk,

communication risk, device

risk, asset criticality and

compensating controls.

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8. The Four Steps to Continuous OT/IoT Cyber Risk Management

There are four steps to continuous OT/IoT cyber risk management:

Risk Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Mitigation and Risk

Monitoring. The Nozomi Networks platform simplifies each phase

in the cycle, enabling you to detect threats before they can cause

harm, mitigate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited and

minimize damage should an incident occur. In doing so, it helps

operators and SOC teams collaborate to prioritize efforts and take

the most impactful actions to reduce risk and increase resilience.

Download now

For a deeper dive of

risk management for

OT/IoT enviroments,

download our eBook.

Risk Monitoring

Risk Identification

Risk Mitigation

Risk Assessment ! !

3

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4 • Asset Inventory • Communication Inventory • Vulnerability Detection • Threat Detection

• Asset Inventory • Communication Inventory • Vulnerability Detection • Threat Detection

• Risk Remediation Recommendations • Automated Incident Response

via Integrations • Manual Incident Response • via Playbooks

• Risk Score Calculation • Risk Score Customization

https://www.nozominetworks.com/resources/ot-iot-cybersecurity-risk-management-ebook

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9. SOC Efficiency: Close the OT/IoT Cybersecurity Gap

If anyone needs an “easy button,” it’s the overwhelmed SOC

analyst new to OT and IoT security. When AI infuses every aspect

of your cybersecurity platform — from asset inventory to behavior

baselining to threat and anomaly detection to vulnerability

management — those capabilities culminate in the SOC, where

the most critical information must be surfaced so analysts never

miss a critical issue. Not just displayed but continuously refreshed,

correlated and prioritized by risk, with drill-down access to more

insights and what to do next.

Offloading the tedious tasks of reviewing, correlating and

prioritizing thousands of data points to a tireless AI engine can

potentially eliminate the need for Tier 1 SOC analysts and other

junior positions altogether.  No more sifting through the noise for a

few alerts that matter. No more being stumped about what to do,

not just about this one alert but to reduce the most risk overall.

Hello, Ask Me Anything About Your Environment AI assistants have taken off because they

provide instant answers to plain-language

questions that might otherwise require

hours of research. No doubt SOC analysts are

turning to commercial chatbots for help, but

for reliable answers they need an AI assistant

they can engage with that is OT and IoT aware

and can respond contextually based on what’s

happening in their environment.

Instead of just asking a general compliance

question about, say, NIS2 or IEC 62443

requirements, they can ask whether their

specific environment is compliant and, if not,

what to do in what order.

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NN-OT-IoT-STRATEGY-EBOOK-001

nozominetworks.com

Cybersecurity for OT, IoT and Critical Infrastructure Nozomi Networks protects the world’s critical infrastructure from

cyber threats. Our platform uniquely combines network and endpoint

visibility, threat detection, and AI-powered analysis for faster, more

effective incident response. Customers rely on us to minimize risk and

complexity while maximizing operational resilience.

© 2026 Nozomi Networks, Inc. | All Rights Reserved.

1. Introduction 2. OT & IoT: The Fastest-Growing Contributors to Enterprise Cyber Risk 3. How Is OT Security Different From IT Security? 4. How Is IoT Security Different From IT Security? 5. Asset Visibility: The Starting Point of Your OT/IoT Cybersecurity Strategy 5.1 Don’t Overlook Wireless Security Sensors! 5.2 Endpoint Security Sensors 5.3 AI-Powered Asset Matching

6. Actionable Threat Intelligence That Covers IT, IoT and OT Threats 6.1 Curated Insights That Connect the Dots 6.2 Vulnerability Risk Scoring for When You Can’t Patch Everything

7. Risk Management for OT/IoT Environments 8. The Four Steps to Continuous OT/IoT Cyber Risk Management 9. SOC Efficiency: Close the OT/IoT Cybersecurity Gap