Joint research by Palo Alto Networks, Siemens, and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) analyzed global telemetry from over 61,000 firewalls deployed in OT environments, alongside 20 years of historical incident data. The analysis shows that industrial threats emerge and persist well before adversaries reach OT environments, creating a measurable window for detection and disruption.
The research identified a 332% increase in unique internet-exposed OT devices and services, with nearly 20 million OT-related devices now observable on the public internet.
These perspectives indicate that exposure to vulnerabilities in OT environments is expanding rapidly. The findings highlight a growing opportunity for OT security leaders to act earlier in the attack lifecycle and apply proactive risk mitigation before threats translate into operational disruption.
