OT cybersecurity is moving to the top of the agenda because OT systems now sit at the intersection of safety, operations, and business continuity.

Historically, industrial control systems (ICS) and OT networks were protected by an “air gap” and were not connected to IT or the internet. That has changed. New tools like IoT/IIoT, cloud, AI, and 5G have helped organizations optimize operations and reduce costs, but they have also created tight interconnections between IT and OT.

This shift has several implications:

• Higher exposure to cyberattacks: As the air gap erodes, OT inherits the same threats IT has faced for years—ransomware, phishing, malware, and credential theft—plus the added risk of physical impact on plants, grids, and transportation.
• Real-world consequences: Attacks on power grids, water facilities, manufacturing plants, and other critical infrastructure can disrupt public services and global supply chains, not just internal systems.
• Rising incident volume: In a global survey of OT security professionals, nearly 50% reported one or more OT security incidents in the last year, with impacts including brand damage, loss of critical data, and reduced productivity.
• Growing threat sophistication: Nation-state actors and criminal groups are actively targeting manufacturing (currently the most targeted sector) and using ICS-specific malware such as FrostyGoop and PIPEDREAM, which can scale across systems and sectors.

As a result, OT security is no longer just about protecting data; it is about maintaining safe, continuous operations. That is why many organizations are now rolling OT security under the CISO and treating it as a strategic, board-level risk.

Several trends are reshaping how organizations think about OT security and how they prioritize investments.

1. Erosion of the air gap
OT networks that were once isolated are now connected to IT, cloud, and external networks. This connectivity enables real-time optimization and analytics but also significantly increases systemic cyber risk. OT environments are now exposed to the same attack surface as IT, plus the added complexity of legacy devices and safety-critical processes.

2. Market growth and investment focus
Organizations are actively investing to close OT security gaps. The OT cybersecurity market is projected to grow from $12.75 billion in 2023 to about $21.6 billion by 2028, with an estimated 9.2% CAGR. The strongest growth areas are:

• Network security and segmentation
• Identity and access management
• Endpoint protection

3. Maturing security postures
While many environments are still early in their journey, there is measurable progress:

• 26% of organizations report having established visibility and segmentation in OT, up from 20% in 2024 and 13% in 2023.
• The share of organizations that have moved OT security under a CISO has grown from 16% in 2022 to 52% in 2025.

4. Workforce and skills gap
The majority of the ICS/OT cybersecurity workforce is relatively new to the field: 52.6% have five years or less of experience, and less than half hold OT-specific security certifications. This skills gap affects how quickly organizations can design, implement, and operate robust OT security programs.

5. Technology shifts: cloud, 5G, and AI

• Cloud: Adoption is accelerating—26% of organizations now use cloud technologies for ICS and OT applications, a 15% increase in just one year.
• 5G: Used for low-latency connectivity, factory robotics, mobile OT sites, and as a primary link where wired options are not available.
• AI: Already used for predictive maintenance and process optimization, and increasingly for OT security tasks such as anomaly detection, network behavior profiling, vulnerability management, and security automation.

In parallel, detection capabilities are improving—incident detection times have moved from days (2019) to hours (2024)—but gaps remain. 44% of organizations still lack ICS/OT-specific incident response, and fewer than a third have a SOC with OT-specific reporting. Only 12% report extensive network monitoring, which is a key factor in early detection.

Overall, the landscape is shifting from isolated, manually managed OT to interconnected, data-driven environments that require integrated, platform-based security approaches.

Many organizations started OT security with point products—individual tools for firewalls, monitoring, remote access, and so on. Over time, this creates complexity, integration gaps, and higher operational overhead. A platform-based approach is designed to reimagine how security is delivered across IT and OT by focusing on integration, visibility, and automation.

The Fortinet OT Security Platform is an example of this approach. It brings together secure networking and security operations capabilities—such as FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs), FortiSwitch, and other components—under a common operating system (FortiOS) and a unified management layer.

Key characteristics include:

• End-to-end coverage across IT and OT: The platform is built to protect users, devices, and applications across WAN, LAN, and OT production networks, including DMZs and remote sites.
• Broad visibility of the attack surface: FortiOS can automatically discover and classify IT, OT, and IIoT assets, including users, applications, and protocols. This visibility is the foundation for managing risk in mixed IT/OT environments.
• Intent-based segmentation: Once assets are identified and assigned risk scores, they can be grouped into security zones with tailored policies. This helps contain threats and prevents malware from moving laterally between IT and OT.
• Integrated threat intelligence and AI: AI-driven FortiGuard security services share threat intelligence across the platform, enabling faster detection of anomalous behavior and coordinated responses.
• Security automation and orchestration: Continuous trust assessment allows the platform to dynamically adapt as configurations change. Potentially compromised assets can be automatically isolated (“walled off”) while alerts are sent to the NOC or SOC.
• Simplified operations: Centralized management—often described as a “single pane of glass”—reduces complexity compared to managing multiple siloed tools and helps teams with limited OT security experience operate more effectively.

The platform supports five core OT security use cases:

1. WAN security
2. LAN security
3. Advanced threat protection
4. Security automation, operations, and management
5. Third-party vendor integrations

For organizations that are modernizing OT security, this kind of platform-based model provides a structured way to move from basic visibility and segmentation toward more advanced capabilities like predictive behavior analysis and orchestration—without disrupting production processes.