The OT security community has expanded from a niche circle into a large, global network of professionals. What was once a handful of experts and vendors has become tens of thousands of practitioners, supported by conferences, training programs, and a broad market of security products. Newcomers are welcomed, collaboration is strong, and knowledge is widely shared. This growth and sense of community stand out as one of the clearest successes over the past two decades.

At the same time, risk management in OT remains weak. Threats are often exaggerated, and organizations frequently pursue broad, costly programs that deliver little actual reduction in risk. Simple, high-impact measures are overlooked in favor of sprawling checklists that try to address everything at once. The result is wasted resources and limited progress in reducing the likelihood or impact of real incidents. The challenge ahead is to use the strength of the community to reframe threats, set better priorities, and focus on actions that genuinely improve resilience.

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Source: https://dale-peterson.com/2025/09/09/we-won-we-lost-part-2/