Operational Technology (OT) environments are increasingly targeted by sophisticated cyber threats. Traditional vulnerability management approaches often fall short in complex, legacy-heavy ecosystems. Exposure Management (EM) in OT provides a proactive, risk-based strategy to identify, assess and mitigate vulnerabilities across industrial control systems.
What is Exposure Management in OT?
Exposure Management in OT focuses on identifying and reducing risks across industrial control systems through continuous visibility into vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and insecure assets.
It addresses vulnerabilities unique to operational environments – such as unpatched devices, outdated protocols and insufficient network segmentation.
Given the mission-critical nature of OT systems and the prevalence of legacy infrastructure, the impact of cyber incidents is often severe, disrupting both business continuity and essential operations.
By addressing these risks proactively, organisations can enhance resilience, meet regulatory obligations and minimise operational downtime.
Why now?
The convergence of IT and OT, rising geopolitical tensions, more stringent regulations and increasingly aggressive threat actors have made Exposure Management in OT not just a best practice – but a business imperative
Our expertise
Our team brings deep, cross-sector expertise in Exposure Management for OT. Clients have achieved measurable reductions in meantime to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), along with improved audit readiness and stakeholder confidence.
Tailored solutions: We recognise that every organisation faces unique risks and operational challenges. We work closely with clients to develop customised Exposure Management strategies aligned with their specific needs and business objectives.
Proven track record: We’ve helped organisations navigate complex risk landscapes and deliver measurable improvements in security posture.
Exposure Management is a critical, proactive measure to strengthen operational resilience and reduce threats to your OT infrastructure.
What we offer
Regulatory and threat landscape
Integrating EM practices into OT environments is essential for regulatory alignment and continuous compliance. It also enhances cyber resilience by proactively addressing vulnerabilities in the face of evolving and sophisticated threats.
Organisations must overcome not only technical challenges but also cultural and structural barriers when integrating IT and OT. A holistic approach to risk management is essential to stay ahead in today’s dynamic threat landscape.
Challenges with Exposure Management in OT
Beyond technical integration, organisations often face cultural and organisational resistance. A key operational challenge is the speed and cost of patching in OT; even modern systems require costly updates and allow minimal planned downtime. This makes broad patching cycles impractical and necessitates targeted, risk-based approaches that account for asset exposure.
Capability readiness roadmap for building a complete exposure management solution
Achieving effective Exposure Management in Operational Technology (OT) environments requires more than just tools and processes – it demands a deliberate investment in foundational capabilities that enable visibility, control and resilience.
This roadmap outlines the essential building blocks organisations must establish to implement a comprehensive Exposure Management programme. Each phase builds on the last, increasing both security effectiveness and organisational maturity.
- Phase 1: Establish strategic foundations
- Phase 2: Enable contextual intelligence
- Phase 3: Institutionalise Exposure Management
- Extend further
Phase 1: Establish strategic foundations
Focus: Organisational alignment, governance and visibility
This phase ensures the organisation is structurally prepared to manage exposure risk. It’s about creating the conditions for success through leadership commitment, clear accountability and a shared understanding of the OT landscape.
- Executive sponsorship and cross-functional alignment
- Defined governance structures and escalation paths
- Comprehensive asset visibility and inventory
- Foundational vulnerability management practices
- Agreed-upon security configuration management baselines
Phase 2: Enable contextual intelligence
Focus: Identity awareness, risk context and prioritisation logic
With foundational visibility in place, organisations can begin to understand exposures in context. This phase introduces the ability to assess how identities, threats and vulnerabilities interact across the environment.
- Effective identity and access management
- Integration of threat intelligence
- Risk-based prioritisation frameworks
- Awareness of external exposures
Phase 3: Institutionalise Exposure Management
Focus: Integration, measurement and sustainability
At this stage, Exposure Management becomes a formalised capability – fully embedded in governance, risk and compliance processes. The focus is on making exposure reduction measurable, repeatable and aligned with business priorities.
- Integration into existing security and risk programmes
- Exposure-based KPIs and reporting
- Defined maturity roadmap
- Organisational readiness and change enablement
Extend further
- Automation of key workflows
- AI-driven analytics for exposure insights
- Unified visibility across IT, OT, cloud and identity
- Continuous assurance and regulatory alignment
The PwC 5-step operational approach to Exposure Management in OT
Operationalising the Capability Roadmap¹
The Capability Roadmap outlines the foundational capabilities organisations must establish to support Exposure Management – such as asset visibility, governance, vulnerability management and identity awareness. Once these building blocks are in place, the next step is to activate them through a structured, continuous process.
The PwC 5-step operational approach translates those strategic capabilities into action. It provides a pragmatic framework for continuously identifying, assessing and reducing exposure across complex environments.
This approach helps organisations move beyond static controls and fragmented tooling toward a unified, intelligence-led model that reflects how attackers operate – relationally, laterally and creatively.
- Step 1: Scoping
- Step 2: Discovery
- Step 3: Prioritisation
- Step 4: Validation
- Step 5: Mobilisation
Step 1: Scoping
Define the full extent of your exposure surface. This includes not only traditional OT assets but also cloud workloads, unmanaged devices, identities and third-party integrations.
Key actions:
- Extend visibility to unmanaged, hybrid, and cloud-native assets.
- Include non-traditional exposure points like code repositories, SaaS platforms and supply chain systems.
- Map trust boundaries, network zones and identity domains.
Outcome:
A complete, exposure-aware view of your operational footprint – ready for analysis
Step 2: Discovery
Identify exposures that matter – not just vulnerabilities. This includes misconfigurations, excessive privileges and insecure access paths that attackers could exploit.
Key actions:
- Detect exposure conditions across assets, identities and configurations.
- Correlate vulnerabilities with asset criticality and access paths.
- Identify exposure clusters and lateral movement enablers.
Outcome:
A detailed exposure map that reveals how attackers could reach your most valuable assets
Step 3: Prioritisation
Focus on what’s exploitable and impactful – not just what’s severe. Prioritise exposures based on blast radius, business impact and threat relevance.
Key actions:
- Use identity-to-asset mapping to assess privileged access risk.
- Prioritise exposures based on exploitability, operational impact and threat intelligence.
- Focus on ‘crown jewel’ assets and chokepoints in attack paths.
Outcome:
A risk-informed prioritisation model that directs effort where it matters most
Step 4: Validation
Test whether your defences actually reduce exposure. Use red teaming, breach simulations or automated validation to confirm that attack paths are closed.
Key actions:
- Conduct targeted testing to validate exposure reduction.
- Confirm that segmentation, access controls and detection mechanisms are effective.
- Measure exposure reduction over time using defined KPIs.
Outcome:
Evidence-based assurance that your exposure management programme is delivering real-world risk reduction
Step 5: Mobilisation
Be ready to act when exposures are exploited. Embed exposure insights into SOC and IR workflows and ensure teams are prepared to respond quickly and effectively.
Key actions:
- Integrate exposure insights into operational response playbooks.
- Align exposure response with business continuity and recovery plans.
- Ensure teams are trained to act on exposure data and scenarios – not just alerts.
Outcome:
A coordinated, cross-functional response capability that can act decisively when it counts
Continuous feedback loop
The CTEM cycle is iterative. Insights from validation and mobilisation feed back into scoping, discovery and prioritisation – ensuring the programme evolves with the threat landscape and remains aligned with business risk.
¹ Source: Gartner, “5 Steps in the Cycle of Continuous Threat Exposure Management” © 2023 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. CM_GTS_2477201.
Ready to take control of your OT exposure?
In today’s dynamic business environment, effective Exposure Management is not just a best practice – it’s a strategic imperative. We aim to strengthen your organisation’s resilience, minimise risk exposure and unlock new opportunities for growth, modernisation and innovation.
It’s time to evaluate and enhance your OT security capabilities. By partnering with PwC, you gain access to deep expertise and innovative solutions that prioritise security enhancements. With a proven track record of delivering tangible results, we help clients navigate complex risk landscapes and achieve sustainable success.
Contact us
Ashish Gupta
Mario Pesenti
Yasmin Salce
Senior Associate, Cybersecurity and Privacy, PwC Switzerland