Security Magazine logo
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
  • NEWS
  • MANAGEMENT
  • PHYSICAL
  • CYBER
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • SECTORS
  • EVENTS
  • MEDIA
  • MORE
  • EMAG
  • SIGN UP!
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • NEWS
  • Security Newswire
  • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
  • Leadership Management
  • Enterprise Services
  • Security Education & Training
  • Logical Security
  • Security & Business Resilience
  • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
  • Access Management
  • Fire & Life Safety
  • Identity Management
  • Physical Security
  • Video Surveillance
  • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
  • Cybersecurity News
  • More
  • COLUMNS
  • Cyber Tactics
  • Leadership & Management
  • Security Talk
  • Career Intelligence
  • Leader to Leader
  • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
  • Annual Guarding Report
  • Most Influential People in Security
  • The Security Benchmark Report
  • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
  • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
  • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
  • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
  • Banking/Finance/Insurance
  • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
  • Education: K-12
  • Education: University
  • Government: Federal, State and Local
  • Hospitality & Casinos
  • Hospitals & Medical Centers
  • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
  • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
  • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
  • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
  • Industry Events
  • Webinars
  • Solutions by Sector
  • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Polls
  • Photo Galleries
  • Videos
  • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
  • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
  • MORE
  • Call for Entries
  • Classifieds & Job Listings
  • Continuing Education
  • Newsletter
  • Sponsor Insights
  • Store
  • White Papers
  • EMAG
  • eMagazine
  • This Month's Content
  • Advertise
Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
CybersecurityManagementSecurity NewswireSecurity Enterprise ServicesSecurity Leadership and ManagementLogical SecuritySecurity & Business ResilienceCybersecurity News

With OT attacks on rise, organizations weigh cybersecurity trends for 2023

By Terence Liu
cybersecurity-trends-fp1170.jpg

Image via Freepik

December 6, 2022

Security for operational technology (OT) is steadily gaining attention. Most chief information officers (CIOs) / chief information security officers (CISOs) have recognized by now that simply duplicating security measures from information technology (IT) to OT is not achievable given the limitations and different environments. As hackers go beyond the common attack approaches found in the IT world, the targeted attack in OT becomes tougher to maintain.


Threat research data from both publicly and privately funded sources tells the same story: OT-focused attacks are becoming more prevalent. Although statistical data never reveals the future in terms of hacking targets and approaches, insider knowledge coupled with field observations do give us a forecast for OT cybersecurity trends in 2023.


1. OT/IT Convergence Changes Threat Surfaces

Although most successful attacks that occurred in OT environments were copied from the IT world, we cannot deny the upward trend of attacks using OT-specific protocols. The ability to identify and correlate between the IT and OT attackers’ footprints will be the reference point for security vendors to work from in 2023 and thereafter.


2. Geopolitical Turbulence Reshapes Threat Landscape

State-sponsored hacker activities will go even further than mercenary groups because they are pursuing returns beyond financial gain. Critical infrastructure is, and will continue to be, highly targeted. Among all the public-sector entities that our company’s research lab monitored, probing/hacking directly against governmental bodies accounted for 48 percent of the traffic. At the time of this article being composed, this trend remains consistent. Targeted hackings require more vertical-specific tools that carry out different purposes and, therefore, require different countermeasures.

 

3. Security Requirements Spur Organization-Wide Changes

With the heightened awareness of how crucial cybersecurity is in the OT space, the challenge of deploying security lies in how to manage it. In 2022, we saw some unfamiliar job titles and departments appear at the corporate level to supervise and manage security matters across the OT/IT boundary. This will continue to happen. Such organization-wide changes will bridge the gap between security recognition and reality. In our 2022 survey for OT security, 72 percent of the 900 respondents indicated their organization has been disrupted with a security issue more than five times within a year, but, in general, they couldn’t identify whether these disruptions stemmed from IT or OT. Only those involved to some degree in both IT and OT security were capable of answering that question.

 

4. Active Protection Overtakes Detect-and-Respond in OT

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or Extended Detection and Response (XDR) types of services play important roles in IT to discover unknown threats with predictive intelligence. But, they are not quite up to par for OT until they can drastically filter out the noise of false positives and other managerial hassles, as OT cybersecurity teams are often understaffed. Previously, active protection was not widely adopted in OT because of the heavy system footprint, internet dependency and compatibility issues with legacy operating systems such as Windows XP. Now that OT security is finally in the spotlight, more security vendors will collaborate to tailor their products for OT. Plus, the active protection is the most effective way to prevent the traditional viruses and worms which are still popular attacking vectors in the world.


5. Competition Widens Security-Maturity Gap Within Verticals

While the raider group is seeking more advanced security implementations, the survivor group is still struggling with the resources to maintain basic protection. In keeping with the adage of winner takes all, we see powerful organizations enforcing OT security upon the entire supply chain of a vertical. The raiders know what to do and take the lead for other industry counterparts, while the survivors can only do their best to keep up. For example, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was a game-changing raider group that not only played a major role in establishing the specifications for fab equipment cybersecurity (SEMI E187) but also strongly influenced the industry to adopt these specifications.


6. Regulations: The Driving Force of OT Security

OT security adoption and awareness is reaching new heights, due to both the Biden administration’s allocating $11 billion toward civilian cybersecurity spending and the collateral effects from other public domains. Private domains such as critical infrastructure and strategic, nation-sponsored industries will push for enforcement of security, mainly through regulations and standards to make sure that its execution can be identical in quality and level of confidence around the globe.


Digital transformation is an unstoppable trend. Most people working in the OT field are under immense pressure to go smart, and that will eventually involve more interconnected devices in the field and more intelligence gathered from cloud technologies.


Organizations in 2023 will most likely need to move forward with a mixture of legacy and modern devices, as well as a mixture of network adoption methods for various organizational missions. With that being said, a multi-layered security deployment approach needs to be applied to ensure every asset is covered throughout their entire lifecycle so that none of them inadvertently becomes a major weakness of the organization.

KEYWORDS: cyber security operational security risk management

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Terence liu txone headshot 2

Terence Liu is the chief executive officer of TXOne Networks, which offers cybersecurity solutions.

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Security Enterprise Services
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Logical Security
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Cybersecurity
    By: Charles Denyer
Manage My Account
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

Middle East Escalation, Humanitarian Law and Disinformation – Episode 25

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

The Money Laundering Machine: Inside the global crime epidemic - Episode 24

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

Security’s Top 5 – 2024 Year in Review

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Sureview screen
    Sponsored bySureView Systems

    The Evolution of Automation in the Command Center

  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

Popular Stories

Rendered computer with keyboard

16B Login Credentials Exposed in World’s Largest Data Breach

Verizon on phone screen

61M Records Listed for Sale Online, Allegedly Belong to Verizon

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Security’s 2025 Women in Security

Red spiderweb

From Retail to Insurance, Scattered Spider Changes Targets

blurry multicolored text on black screen

PowerSchool Education Technology Company Announces Data Breach

2025 Security Benchmark banner

Events

July 17, 2025

Tech in the Jungle: Leveraging Surveillance, Access Control, and Technology in Unique Environments

What do zebras, school groups and high-tech surveillance have in common? They're all part of a day’s work for the security team at the Toledo Zoo.

August 7, 2025

Threats to the Energy Sector: Implications for Corporate and National Security

The energy sector has found itself in the crosshairs of virtually every bad actor on the global stage.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • ransomware

    Rise of ransomware: Why OT is a prime target for cybercriminals

    See More
  • Bar Graph

    Cybersecurity trends for 2023 and what to expect

    See More
  • deepfake attacks

    47% of organizations have dealt with deepfake attacks

    See More

Related Products

See More Products
  • security culture.webp

    Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

  • highriseproductphoto

    High-Rise Security and Fire Life Safety, 3rd edition

  • Photonic-Sensing.gif

    Photonic Sensing: Principles and Applications for Safety and Security Monitoring

See More Products
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing

Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!