Traditionally, OT environments were never designed with security in mind. They were assumed to be air-gapped and therefore “secure by default.” However, post-COVID, there has been a significant rise in cyberattacks against critical national infrastructure (CNI). As a result, securing OT has become a top priority for CISOs, CIOs and CEOs.
A few years ago, the primary goal for most organisations was simple: you can’t protect what you can’t see. The most common and logical pain point was poor visibility into assets and applications. Many organisations lacked a common interface or central database to build an accurate asset inventory and apply further controls. From manufacturing to energy, from transportation to utilities, organisations invested in tools that promised visibility into critical assets such as PLCs, HMIs and network connections. After years of siloed operations and fragmented inventories, simply knowing what was running on industrial networks felt like meaningful progress.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Cybersecurity Outlook Report 2026 indicates that the ‘lack of visibility’ challenge has reduced from 48% in 2025 to 24% in 2026—a significant improvement and a promising step toward securing OT networks. At the same time, multiple industry reports and analyst observations show a clear pattern: most organisations today already know what’s in their OT environment, but they still struggle to make that information useful. Surveys and trends suggest that while tracking assets remains essential, leaders are now asking more challenging questions:
- How do we control who can access what and under what conditions?
- How do we limit risk from third-party vendors and remote support?
- How do we respond effectively when something goes wrong without stopping production?
What’s driving this shift in the market?
Several factors are pushing organisations to move beyond visibility:
- Attack surface proliferation
- Increase in IT/OT convergence
- Rise in volume of attacks
- Compliance requirements
- Business continuity and resiliency
What does ‘control’ really mean in OT Security?
Various security checks can be applied in OT environments without hampering existing processes. These checks need to be deployed carefully and require planning, precision, and skilled resources with deep industry know-how. The following controls are commonly implemented to strengthen security posture while keeping operations stable:
- Identity and access governance
- Third-party risks and access control
- Network and granular segmentation
- Vulnerability and risk identification
- Threat detection and incident response
- Compliance-based assessment and audit
Organisations that invest time and money in executing and orchestrating these controls benefit in the long term. They gain clearer incident actions, better control over dynamic environments, a stronger position during audits and reviews, reduced dependency on individuals (more process-driven operations) and improved readiness for future technologies.
In 2026, the most successful OT security programs will be those that focus not just on visibility into the environment, but also on governing access, embedding security into operations and tying controls to measurable outcomes.
How HCLTech can help
HCLTech offers end-to-end OT security services—starting with risk-based assessments and strategic roadmap creation, all the way through proofs-of-concept, solution design, implementation and managed services. Our Zero Trust approach supports control mapping and execution and is built on core principles - verify identity, control access and enforce security at each layer. Our customer-centric approach includes flexible delivery models, backed by a global network of skilled professionals. HCLTech has a team of OT-experienced, certified SMEs across industry verticals who work with a mature partner ecosystem to deliver value to customers. HCLTech 360° SecureOT framework provides a comprehensive solution, backed by deep expertise across security controls and industry-specific flavours. Learn more
