The Firewall in the Panel
Every OT network diagram has a box labeled firewall. What is actually in that box, who owns it, and why the brand on it matters less than the rule set behind it.
Every OT network diagram I've ever seen has a box labeled "firewall." Almost none of them say what's actually in that box. Here's what I find when I go...
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When blocking never worked, and what to do instead
Shadow IT, ICS advisories you should know about, and one thing to do this week.
From the PrOTect IT All Weekly Security Brief, sent to the list on October 8, 2026. Your firewall did not stop USB drives in 2005.
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Someone hacked a crane from a parking lot
If your plant has wireless, you have an airspace. Most plants have no idea what's in it.
From the PrOTect IT All Weekly Security Brief, sent to the list on October 1, 2026. If your plant has wireless, you have an airspace.
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AI won't save you if you can't interrogate it
New episode, three ICS and AI incidents worth your time, and one thing to do before Friday.
From the PrOTect IT All Weekly Security Brief, sent to the list on September 17, 2026. If you are using AI to defend OT systems and you can't tell when...
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April It Was Rockwell. Now It's Siemens.
The third advisory in five months. Same door, different box. And this time the tool that opened it was written with help from AI.
In April it was Rockwell. A federal advisory, AA26-097A, described Iranian-affiliated actors going after Allen-Bradley PLCs, hiding logic where nobody...
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The Airline Is Gone. The Emails Are Not.
Spirit stopped flying in May. The most valuable thing left in the estate turned out to be the file server. Here is the question that raises for everyone in critical infrastructure.
Picture the end of an airline. Not the headline version, the physical version. The planes go back to the lessors. The gates go dark.
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Three Days Later, Minnesota
More than 30 water systems got hit at once. The water stayed safe because people knew what to do after the bang, not just before it.
Three days. That is how long it took between me writing about advisory AA26-097A and more than 30 Minnesota community water systems finding out what that...
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The HMI Said Everything Was Fine
The July 22 update to joint advisory AA26-097A has one part we have all heard before, and one part that should change what you do this week.
Picture a night shift operator. The coffee has gone cold. The HMI in front of them is green across the board.
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Part 2: The Price. What AI Can Do To Us If We’re Not Paying Attention
The same renaissance, the other wayI’m going to open with the line I closed Part 1 with, because it’s the load-bearing premise of everything that...
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Part 1: The Promise. What AI Can Do For Cyber, OT, and the World We’re Building
The defender’s curse, finally tiltingFor most of my career in OT cybersecurity, the defenders have been outgunned. Small teams.
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Ransomware Is Coming For Your Facilities, Not Just Your Files
Look, here is the thing. Foxconn got hit again. On May 11, the Nitrogen ransomware group dropped them on its leak site, claiming 8 terabytes of data and...
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We Built a Working OT Network on a Wall.
Look, here's the thing about OT cybersecurity. Most of the people who need to understand it have never seen it. They've heard the acronyms.
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Claude Mythos And The AI Vulnerability Storm
Claude Mythos is the moment the industry’s biggest lie gets exposed. We never had a finding problem.
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OT Risk Management That Actually Works
You cannot manage risk you cannot measure, and you cannot measure what you cannot see.
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Critical Infrastructure Under Attack
Nation-state attacks on critical infrastructure are no longer theoretical.
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Tabletop Exercises and Incident Response
When a cyberattack hits an environment, there is no time to figure out who calls whom, where the playbooks are, or whether your response team has ever...
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The Streaming Box That Was Hunting SCADA Systems
Issue: SuperBox / BadBox 2.0 | Source: Darknet Diaries Episode 172The most dangerous device in your house might not be your phone or your laptop.
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Compliance vs Security
Compliance gives you a checklist. Security gives you protection.
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AI in Cybersecurity
Everyone is adding AI to their security stack right now, often without a clear answer to the question "what problem does this solve?" The gap between AI...
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OT Remote Access and Network Security
Remote access into OT environments exploded during COVID, and most organizations never stopped to ask whether they got it right.IT style VPNs, shared...
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PrOTect It All Security Brief
After more than 100 conversations about real-world cybersecurity, OT, and AI, the PrOTect IT All Podcast finally has a home base and a new hive.This...
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