With recent reports that the Chinese government has spent years infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure – including power grids, water systems, transportation networks, and communications hubs – and growing concern among national security leaders about coordinated disruption, the takeaway is blunt: these intrusions aren’t about stealing data. They’re about gaining the ability to disable essential services in a moment of crisis or conflict.
Every connection matters. Every device, every byte of data, is a potential doorway.
Protecting the nation’s infrastructure means going beyond traditional cybersecurity. Zero Trust for Operational Technology (OT) isn’t just a framework – it’s a mindset rooted in resilience and national security. Adversaries may already be in the system, waiting for the right moment to act. The best defense isn’t hope; it’s verifiable trust.
Once an adversary gets in, removing them is far more complicated than stopping them in the first place. The real fight isn’t about detecting intrusions – it’s about denying access from the start.
Cyber defense has become an issue of operational survival, not simply IT hygiene.
If you run or support operations in industries such as utilities, energy, manufacturing or logistics, Zero Trust for OT starts with a change in mindset. This means moving from trust by default to verification by design, assuming compromise is always possible, and validating every user, device, and data flow before granting access.
Here are five practical steps to start implementing Zero Trust in your OT environment:
- Assume compromise. Build and manage your networks as if an intruder is already inside. Limit privileges, enforce least-access principles, and isolate your most critical systems by default.
- Separate IT from OT. Keep operational systems insulated from corporate networks. Enforce strict segmentation and use secure, policy-controlled gateways or one-way data diodes to manage what moves between them. Don't attempt to cookie-cutter IT approaches for OT, or vice-versa.
- Lock down removable media and vendor access. Establish clear policies for vendor access, and ensure all external devices and media are verified and sanitized before connecting to your environment.
- Inspect and validate all data flows. Treat every file, transfer, and device as untrusted until it’s verified and cleaned (tools like Content Disarm & Reconstruction (CDR) make this practical.) Deploy continuous monitoring and data-integrity checks to detect and block suspicious or manipulated content before it reaches critical systems.
- Strengthen visibility and recovery. Run drills, test your backups, and plan for the day when you may have to operate in isolation. Resilience isn’t theoretical; it’s muscle memory.
