It’s almost impossible to secure what you can’t see. But asset discovery and continuous monitoring tools are making it easier, particularly when it comes to protecting operational technology and Internet of Things devices.
For many organizations, securing these devices within their critical infrastructure is still a challenge. Fortinet reports that OT intrusions rose significantly last year, and a separate survey reveals 50% of IT leaders believe IoT is the weakest part of their security. That’s why “80% of organizations” are now making OT and IoT risk a CISO-level responsibility.
Often malware, ransomware and phishing attacks stem from unpatched heating and cooling controllers, rogue smart sensors or a weak link in the network. Here’s why asset discovery and real-time monitoring are key to building a modern OT and IoT security strategy.
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Why Asset Discovery Is Critical To Closing OT/ IoT Gaps
The more OT and IoT devices there are within a business’ infrastructure, the more endpoints teams need to secure.
“Securing an industrial environment starts with a thorough understanding of assets and their relationships,” notes Palo Alto Networks in a blog post. “Visibility into these assets is essential for accurately assessing risk and implementing effective security policies.”
“OT and IoT devices have unique characteristics,” writes Jeff Rotberg, former director of business development at Tenable, in a blog post. “So, if you try to discover them using detection tools designed for IT assets you may end up with errors, memory overload and unexpected downtime.”
The Value of Passive Network Traffic Analysis
Network traffic analysis is another security staple. With passive network monitoring, teams can observe connection points, detect anomalies or misconfigurations without disrupting operational processes or altering system behavior.
“Unlike active monitoring, passive monitoring uses a large volume of data and does not add additional data to the normal network flow,” notes Splunk. This approach can help identify rogue devices without impacting uptime.
Cisco explains: “Network traffic analysis can attribute the malicious behavior to a specific IP and also perform forensic analysis to determine how the threat has moved laterally within the organization — and allow you to see what other devices might be infected.”
22%
The percentage of organizations that have reached a level 3 IT-OT maturity posture in 2025
Source: Fortinet, “2025 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report,” May 1, 2025
Consider a Thorough Infrastructure Assessment
Now that OT and IT networks have merged, malicious actors can enter through a network and expose physical assets to high risk. “The rise of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence is exacerbating these challenges. Unlike many connected OT assets of the past, IoT networks tend to have significant north-south data traffic, which increases the risk that attacks will spread throughout an organization,” write CDW experts in a white paper.
To confront these challenges, experts recommend a thorough OT infrastructure assessment. “A good OT assessment can give your organization the direction it needs to determine: the baseline expectations of those assets, which events within your environment must be monitored, triggers for ‘problem events,’ and a roadmap of gaps to address moving forward,” note CDW experts Mitch Powers and Jill Klein in a blog post.
Track Each Asset With Device Fingerprinting
Tools from Aruba and Microsoft can also generate fingerprints for each OT and IoT device—identifying its type, vendor, firmware version and typical behavior. This makes it easier to track, update and pinpoint anomalies.
Tenable’s One Device Profiling, for instance, helps distinguish between legitimate OT equipment and unauthorized or compromised devices.
Use AI and ML Behavioral Anomaly Detection
AI-and machine learning-driven analytics can also identify unusual communication patterns, protocol misuse and lateral movement.
“Behavioral analysis can be a powerful complement to existing defense technologies, providing an additional layer of defense that activates at runtime to review activity that may have evaded detection from earlier defenses,” writes Lucia Stanham, senior manager of AI at Crowdstrike, in this report.
