Operational technology (OT) is Gartner’s wide-ranging word for internet-connected industrial stuff, including industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) largely found in manufacturing and public utilities such as water treatment facilities and the energy grid.
Cyber attacks on OT can be devastating. When the NotPetya faux-ransomware was done with shipping giant Maersk, the company had suffered $300 million in losses — and it could have been a lot worse. Maersk was nothing more than collateral damage in the hacking war between Russia and Ukraine. Similar incidents seem almost certain to occur again in the future to other enterprises.
