The IT/OT divide: Is your enterprise blind to a critical threat?

For decades, many in the IT world have operated under the assumption that operational technology (OT) networks were separate and secure. The concept of a physical air gap isolated industrial systems and protected them from the cyber threats that could creep in from the larger corporate network. But with the push for digital and cloud transformation in enterprise IT, this boundary is no longer a solid line, and your security strategy may be exposed to significant risk if it doesn't account for vulnerabilities in OT.

The growing problem with edge devices

The industrial systems on your plant floor, in remote substations and on moving vehicles are now a form of an edge device. Typically, these are the systems at the very edge of your corporate network, where the digital world meets the physical world. While many of these systems were once physically isolated by an "air gap", the push for digital and cloud transformation has blurred the line between IT and OT networks. This new connectivity makes them a primary target for attackers who can now pivot from the corporate network to exploit vulnerabilities in these critical systems. The 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) highlighted the exploitation of vulnerabilities by threat actors, increasing by 34% from the previous year. Edge devices like OT were targeted in 22% of these exploits – an eight-fold increase from the prior year's report. Even when organizations prioritize patching, the median time to fully remediate an edge vulnerability is still 32 days (per DBIR), leaving a wide window for a potential breach.

This shift has rendered the traditional "trust-by-isolation" model obsolete. It is now a strategic imperative to adopt a zero-trust approach (ZTA) where nothing is trusted by default. For a CISO and their expert team, this means that your security strategy is incomplete without a clear plan for managing this risk.

Building a defensible security posture

For organizations undergoing digital transformation, the challenge is clear: how do you secure vulnerable OT systems without disrupting critical operations? The solution is to implement a secure, centralized architecture that enables data flow with granular control and strict access policies, effectively acting as a digital bridge between IT and OT systems. This approach provides a practical application of zero-trust principles, giving your IT and security teams the visibility they need for insights into legacy systems like SCADA and PLCs, while also preventing their exploitation, which could lead to catastrophic operational shutdowns and supply chain disruptions. Solutions like JSCAPE by Redwood are specifically designed to establish visibility across both legacy and modern environments, ensuring your organization has an auditable, defensible security posture built to handle today's threats.

By using a centralized platform like JSCAPE, your team can:

• Prevent unauthorized access with outbound-only connections, drastically reducing your attack surface.
• Simplify data governance with a solution that helps you meet compliance requirements across OT/IT systems with a centralized platform that provides a single point of management, control and auditing.
• Enable secure data flow for real-time insights, enabling initiatives like predictive maintenance and AI-driven analytics, which in turn lead to improved decision-making and reduced downtime.

A unified approach to IT and OT security

JSCAPE is the secure, strategic managed file transfer solution that makes it easier for you to achieve these goals while protecting your diverse legacy OT systems. Our hub-and-spoke architecture is designed specifically to simplify data management and strengthen overall security. This unified approach helps you overcome the complexities of integrating disparate systems and allows you to align your security posture with modern, Zero-Trust Approach (ZTA) principles. The result is a secure and scalable solution that helps you reduce operational costs, increase business agility and proactively respond to OT maintenance issues.

Your IT security strategy cannot be truly complete without a plan to protect the OT assets. By implementing a secure and centralized solution, you can successfully manage risk while unlocking new opportunities for operational efficiency and business growth. Reach out to our experts and see how JSCAPE’s secure hub-and-spoke model can fortify your OT operations and better inform your IT operations.