OT risk is sector-specific.
Your assessment should be too.

The energy sector powers everything else. A disruption here cascades across all other critical infrastructure, and attackers know it. From grid operators to pipeline companies to nuclear facilities, energy organizations face the most sophisticated threat actors and the strictest regulatory oversight.

Water utilities serve every community but often operate with limited security resources. Recent attacks on water treatment facilities have demonstrated how adversaries can manipulate chemical dosing systems, turning critical public health infrastructure into potential weapons.

Manufacturing depends on tightly integrated production lines where a single disruption cascades across operations, supply chains, and customer commitments. Chemical facilities add another layer: process safety systems protecting workers and communities from toxic releases.

The food and agriculture sector feeds the world, and faces threats from ransomware gangs, nation-states, and even agroterrorism. From precision agriculture systems to processing plant controls to cold chain logistics, disruptions can mean spoilage, contamination, supply shortages, and food safety incidents.

Healthcare organizations operate life-critical systems 24/7. Beyond IT networks, hospitals run building automation, medical gas systems, and networked clinical devices. Pharmaceutical manufacturers must protect both patient safety and drug integrity across highly regulated production environments.

Transportation systems move people and goods across complex, interconnected networks. From rail signaling to port crane controls to aviation ground systems, these environments blend legacy OT with modern connectivity, creating unique attack surfaces with potentially catastrophic safety implications.

Communications infrastructure enables every other sector. Data centers, telecom networks, and broadcast facilities operate physical systems, power distribution, cooling, environmental controls—that are often overlooked in traditional IT security programs but critical to service availability.

Financial institutions are high-value targets operating mission-critical data centers and trading floors. Beyond IT systems, they manage building automation, physical security, and vault systems—all of which require protection as part of operational resilience programs.

Government facilities range from office buildings to military installations to emergency operations centers. Defense industrial base contractors must protect controlled unclassified information while operating manufacturing and R&D environments that blend IT and OT.

Commercial facilities serve millions of visitors daily and operate complex building systems—HVAC, fire safety, elevators, access control—that are increasingly connected and potentially vulnerable. A disruption can mean immediate revenue loss, liability exposure, and reputational damage.