OT Security in 2026: Strategic resolutions for CISOs 

As we drift towards the close of the year 2025, we can see that the industrial world is now moving past the asset "visibility phase." If 2024 was all about seeing what’s on the wire and 2025 was about struggling with the noise of convergence, 2026 will be the year of Consequence Management. Now don’t get me wrong here. I know many businesses are still working on asset visibility as a key security mandate and many are in their early stages of that journey. Yet, there is a clear consensus among all security leaders on the need to have OT asset visibility as one of the key security goals for 2026.   

For the modern CISO, OT security is no longer a "side project" relegated to the engineering team. Instead, it lies at the frontline of enterprise resilience. Here are the strategic resolutions for 2026 that move well beyond the outdated "air gap" narratives and into actionable, industrial-strength security. 

If you follow these guidelines, you will have a unique security journey to talk about well before the year ends.  

And before we move forward, do not forget to read our previous blog on The 2026 OT security budgeting guide here. I am sure you will find the article relevant.  

Governance as an Operating System (GRC) 

In 2026, OT GRC will have to shift from being a "paper exercise" to an operational reality. The goal is Sovereign-by-Design security. In other words, ensuring that your governance model and tactics stay robust even when vendor connections or cloud dependencies fail. 

• Actionable step: Integrate your OT asset inventory directly into your overall GRC platform. Stop relying on quarterly manual uploads or piecemeal once in a blue moon GRC effectiveness checks. If a PLC's firmware version changes on the shop floor, it should automatically trigger a compliance "drift" alert in your dashboard. Your to-do shouldn’t stop with the alert. Instead the alert has to be attended to and closed.  

• The resolution: "I will treat OT security as governance, not just a technical stack." 

Tracking the OT security metrics that actually matter 

Tracking real metrics leads to your team attaining real results on the field. You goal as a CISO in 2026 should be to attain security resilience in practice.   

Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) is now a vanity metric in OT. This is especially true if the plant is still dark after an incident. In 2026, we will be pivoting to MTCIO: Mean Time to Continued Industrial Operations. 

Beyond VLANs: Identity-based segmentation 

Static network segmentation is fragile. The 2026 resolution is to implement Identity-Based Micro-segmentation. In this model, access isn't granted because a device is plugged into "Port 4," but because the identity of the user and the integrity of the device are verified. If your network cannot contain lateral movement, then you are throwing the whole infra open to a threat actor or a rogue insider and such a behavior can have security consequences.  

• Actionable step: Implement Just-In-Time (JIT) Access for all third-party maintenance. No more "always-on" VPNs for vendors. Access should expire automatically when the work order is closed. 

Closing the loop on risk assessment findings 

The biggest failure in OT security isn't the lack of risk assessments. Instead it's the "shelfware" they become. 

• Actionable recommendation: Map every risk assessment finding to a specific Security Level (SL) in the IEC 62443 framework. If a finding indicates you are at SL-1 but your target is SL-3, that gap becomes a budget line item assigned or rather mapped to specific action items as well. It should not spend the rest of its life as a bullet point in a forgotten PDF. 

Leveraging IEC 62443: Your compliance Rosetta stone 

Stop treating IEC 62443 as a textbook; use it as a mapping tool for global regulations like NIS2 or CIRCIA. 

• Resolution: Use Part 2-3 (Patch Management) to formalize "Defensible Deferral." If you can’t patch a legacy turbine controller, document exactly which "conduit" (Part 3-2) provides the virtual patch. This turns a "non-compliance" into a "risk-managed state." 

Incident response: Defeating "Living off the Land 2.0" 

In 2026, attackers won’t just be dropping malware; they will be using legitimate OT protocols (Modbus, CIP, Profinet) and even process morphing to change setpoints. This is LotL 2.0 in action and you need to be prepared for it. 

• Actionable step: Ingest Historian data into your SIEM/SOC. If a valve opens 50 times in an hour when the process only requires 5, that is a security event, even if no "malware" was detected. You need to know why this happened. Any action that is beyond approved operational envelope needs to be analyzed.  

• Actionable step: Ensure that your incident response preparedness is at the highest level possible and is tested frequently.  

The 2026 CISO to-do checklist 

To ensure that your OT environment is defensible throughout 2026, Shieldworkz recommends the following roadmap: 

• [ ] Q1: Crown jewel mapping. Identify the top 5 physical processes that, if halted, would cause catastrophic business, governance and compliance or safety impact. Tailor all controls to these 5. 

• [ ] Q2: Identity audit. Eliminate all shared vendor accounts. Transition to phishing-resistant MFA for any connection entering the industrial DMZ. 

• [ ] Q3: Tabletop exercise (Physical). Run a simulation where the HMI is locked, but the plant is still running. Does your team know how to switch to manual "eyes-on" control safely? Focus on running an incident response drill that presents an escalating scenario so that employees are forced to think and act with less reaction time. Shieldworkz can help you here.  

• [ ] Q4: Supply Chain Provenance. Require an SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) for any new OT asset procurement to prepare for 2027 compliance mandates. Even if your regulator is not asking for this, you can still ask your vendors to provide a verifiable SBOM and HBOM 

• [ ] Q5: Ongoing: Agentic AI Onboarding. Deploy OT-trained AI agents to handle Tier-1 alert triage, specifically parsing messy, proprietary protocols that human analysts struggle with. 

• [ ] Q6: Invest in employee training and collaboration: Ensure standardized action-oriented training factoring NIS2, IEC 62443 elements and NIST checklists so that your employees are more than ready to manage any incident or fallout and know how to contain a breach.  

• [ ] Q7: Publish security measures: Do not limit your OT security measures to meeting room conversations. Instead, publish the measures across shop floor and places where people can see and reflect on them.  

The "Air Gap" was an exaggerated myth. Operational Resilience is the new reality. By focusing diligently on consequence management, improved incident response, right metrics for tracking state of OT security and verifiable engineering controls, you ensure that even if the network is breached, the process, assets and people remain safe. 

Planning an OT security journey? Talk to Shieldworkz.  
Access regulatory playbooks to smoothen your compliance journey here.