2024 State of OT Security
Abstract
This year marks our sixth edition of the Fortinet State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report. The 2024 study is based on comprehensive data from a global survey of more than 550 OT professionals conducted by a respected third-party research company. As OT organizations introduce new digital tools and technologies to their environments, their security challenges have grown more complex. As NIST notes, While security solutions have been designed to deal with these issues in typical IT systems, special precautions must be taken when introducing these same solutions to OT environments. In some cases, new security solutions that are tailored to the OT environment are needed. This years report shows that some progress has been made over the last 12 months in OT security posture and investment in essential tools and capabilities. But theres more work to be done to effectively manage an increasing number of attacks in a post-IT/OT convergence world. Three notable trends emerged from our 2024 survey responses: Intrusions and their impacts on organizations have worsened over the past year; Responsibility for OT cybersecurity is elevating within executive leadership ranks; OT security postures are maturing in key areas, but this remains a work in progress.