You already have the data. That’s not the problem. Yet unified visibility implementations often fail before they even get off the ground. Before reaching for AI/ML-driven Active Cyber Defense to solve Operational Technology (OT) visibility and monitoring challenges, it’s critical to pause and make sure you’re not repeating the mistakes of the past.

New cloud integration points, new OT assets, network segmentation changes and firmware updates each create new boundary ingress/egress paths and new traffic patterns. Until the monitoring architecture is updated to cover them, they are invisible to the single pane-of-glass. A visibility architecture accurately baselined twelve months ago may have significant coverage gaps today. These gaps developed gradually, invisibly, through the normal operational evolution of the environment.

Taylor Thebarge is an Operational Technology Security Engineer with a background in cyber intelligence. As a former Army officer, she has hands-on experience leading teams in planning and executing cyber intelligence exercises that support cybersecurity operations centers, as well as leading Soldiers across multiple intelligence disciplines to ensure operational readiness. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and scuba diving and lives in the Annapolis, Maryland area with her family.