As technologies and systems become more digitalised and connected across the world, operational technology (OT) environments and industrial control systems (ICS) from energy and manufacturing to transportation and utilities are increasingly depending on enterprise networks and the cloud. This expands OT and ICS capabilities but also their exposure to cyber threats.

Unlike traditional IT environments that manage data and applications, OT systems control real-world processes where cyber incidents can have immediate consequences for safety, availability and operational continuity.

Many of these systems were originally designed for reliability and longevity, not for today’s threat techniques. This can widen the gap between modern attacks and existing defences. Even as OT and ICS environments modernise with improved automation, connectivity and analytics, most were not built to withstand adaptive, software-driven cyberattacks that evolve in real time.

NVIDIA is collaborating with leading cybersecurity providers Akamai, Forescout, Palo Alto Networks and Xage Security, as well as industrial automation innovator Siemens, to bring accelerated computing and AI to OT cybersecurity, advancing real-time threat detection and response across critical infrastructure.

These efforts represent a fundamental shift in OT and ICS cybersecurity, where security is embedded into and distributed across infrastructure, enforced at the edge and coordinated through centralised, AI-driven intelligence, bringing modern cybersecurity to the systems that keep the physical world running.

Zero trust is a security model that removes implicit trust from networks. Every user, device and workload must be continuously verified and authorised, regardless of where it originates.

While zero trust has been widely adopted to secure enterprise IT environments, applying its principles to OT environments has traditionally been difficult. Legacy devices, proprietary protocols and safety-critical operations limit the use of intrusive controls or AI-driven enforcement, even as increased connectivity to IT and cloud environments expands the attack surface.

Forescout is working with NVIDIA to make zero trust practical for OT. Forescout provides continuous, agentless discovery and classification of OT, Internet of things and IT assets, delivering real-time risk assessment and policy-based enforcement. With deep visibility into network activity, Forescout applies network segmentation to contain lateral movement and enforce zero trust controls precisely where they matter most, without impacting operations.

At the industrial edge, NVIDIA BlueField DPUs run security services on dedicated hardware, keeping protection separate from operational systems so critical processes remain unaffected.