Conquering Vulnerability Backlogs in OT: A Practitioner’s Approach

If you’re responsible for securing an operational environment, whether it’s a manufacturing floor, a refinery, or a power plant, you know the frustration of vulnerability management. The backlog never stops growing. Patching is rarely straightforward. And prioritization? That’s a constant battle between security policies and operational realities.

Traditional vulnerability management falls short in OT environments. It assumes a one-size-fits-all approach, where vulnerabilities are simply identified, categorized, and patched. But in the real world of critical infrastructure, taking down a system to apply a patch isn’t always an option. The result? A growing pile of unresolved vulnerabilities; what we often call “vulnerability debt.”

Instead of playing an endless game of catch-up, it’s time for a new approach: exposure management. This strategy focuses on understanding and mitigating risk within an operational context, ensuring that security measures don’t come at the expense of uptime and safety.

Operational Context Matters More Than Ever

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. In IT environments, patching a Windows server may be straightforward. In OT, patching a PLC running a critical manufacturing process may not be possible without shutting down production; something that isn’t taken lightly.

Understanding an asset’s role, connectivity, and exposure to threats is crucial for effective cybersecurity. More specifically, prioritizing critical systems ensures that vulnerabilities affecting high-risk assets are addressed first, minimizing potential impact. It is also important to consider real-world threats, as not every vulnerability requires immediate action. In fact, some may never be exploited in a given environment. Concurrently, security measures should be implemented carefully to minimize disruption. It is crucial that any measures put in place do not inadvertently cause more harm than the threats they are designed to mitigate.

Moving Beyond Patch Fatigue: Exposure Management in Action

Exposure management & security takes a holistic view of the organization, going beyond traditional CVSS scores to assess risk based on three key factors:

1. Threat Intelligence – Is this vulnerability actively being exploited? Are adversaries targeting similar environments? Maybe even a complete vertical?
2. Asset Criticality- Is this an isolated workstation or a critical industrial controller that keeps the plant running?
3. Operational Impact – What happens if this asset goes offline? Will production stop? Will safety be compromised?

By shifting the focus from “patch everything” to “prioritize what matters,” exposure management and security helps security teams make informed decisions, allocating resources where they have the most impact while avoiding unnecessary downtime.

Leveraging Your Security Investments

In today’s macroeconomic environment, security budgets aren’t infinite. Every patch, every mitigation effort, and every security investment needs to be justified. Exposure management helps maximize the return on security investments by ensuring that limited resources,whether manpower, budget, or maintenance windows,are used effectively. Automation and AI has made huge inroads in this specific area. What does it deliver?

• Optimized Resource Allocation: Instead of spreading teams thin across thousands of vulnerabilities, focus efforts on the 5-10% that pose the most risk.
• Targeted Mitigation Strategies: When patching isn’t feasible, compensating controls (such as network segmentation) can provide interim risk reduction.
• Improved Efficiency: Security teams spend less time on administrative overhead and more time on impactful risk reduction.

Bridging the IT-OT Divide: A Unified Security Approach

One of the biggest hurdles in vulnerability management for OT is the longstanding separation between IT and OT teams. IT teams often push for aggressive patching, while OT teams prioritize uptime and safety. Exposure management helps bridge this divide by:

• Creating a Unified Security Strategy- Aligning IT and OT teams around a shared goal and risk-based approach.
• Improving Collaboration- Ensuring that vulnerability management strategies take production constraints and operational resilience into account.
• Providing Comprehensive Visibility- Bringing IT and OT asset data together to paint a full picture of exposure eliminates dark corners or blindspots that can negatively impact the overall security posture..

Leveraging Data and Automation for Smarter Decision-Making

Security teams don’t just need more data; they need better data. Exposure management engines powered by AI and machine learning can help by:

• Automating Threat Detection- Identifying which vulnerabilities are actively being targeted.
• Predicting Exploitability – Using data models to determine which risks are most likely to become threats and provide early warning alerting.
• Streamlining Remediation Plans – Providing actionable insights that go beyond generic patch recommendations.

By integrating real-time threat intelligence, behavioral analytics, and asset criticality assessments, exposure management turns overwhelming vulnerability data into clear, actionable priorities.

The Path Forward: From Vulnerability Debt to Exposure Control

The days of trying to patch everything are over, especially in OT environments where uptime is non-negotiable. Instead of chasing vulnerability debt, security teams must adopt an exposure-based approach. By prioritizing vulnerabilities based on real-world risk, integrating IT and OT security strategies, and leveraging data-driven insights, organizations can break free from the endless cycle of backlog management.

This isn’t just a theoretical shift, it’s a necessary evolution. Operational environments are too critical, too complex, and too unique to rely on outdated vulnerability management strategies. Exposure management provides the clarity, efficiency, and impact-driven approach that modern security teams need to truly protect their environments without compromising operations.