Making the Case for OT Cybersecurity in a Downturn
Why Business Continuity — Not Risk — Is Your Strongest Argument
Let's be real for a moment:
If your OT cybersecurity proposal starts with "CVE exposure" or "segmentation strategy,” you've likely already lost the boardroom.
Especially now.
In this economic climate, OT cybersecurity budgets are under pressure — not because the threats have gone away, but because the justification isn't resonating.
I've seen it firsthand: strong programs get deprioritized because the pitch didn't connect to what leadership cares about — revenue, uptime, and operational impact.
So, how do we change that?
Let's explore.
Don’t Sell Security. Defend Uptime.
I've spent years in the field, from instrumentation engineering and ICS migrations to OT security leadership. And I can tell you this:
No one is moved by theoretical risk.
Boards want to know:
“What happens if this process goes offline? What does it cost us? What does it break?”
If you can't answer that clearly, in operational terms, your program isn’t defensible. Not in a recession. Not when everything is being reprioritized.
The Language of Risk Is Changing
OT teams often make three key mistakes:
Leading with vulnerabilities, not consequences
Focusing on controls instead of continuity
Assuming safety speaks for itself
We need to shift from "cyber hygiene" to "business resilience.”
Instead of:
“We need to improve network segmentation in OT.”
Say:
“Our three top-producing facilities currently lack isolation between control and enterprise networks. If malware hits IT, the control rooms could lose visibility within 20 minutes. That’s $5–8M per hour in production risk.”
It's not alarmist. It's clarity.
From Frameworks to Financials
Here's what boards want:
How long will the process be down?
What will that downtime cost?
What are the regulatory, safety, or reputational implications?
What would we need to recover?
Forget compliance for a moment.
Focus on impact:
Production loss
Safety shutdowns
Supply chain disruption
Customer SLAs
That's what gets attention.
Reframing the Cyber Budget
One client didn’t pitch “cybersecurity improvements.” He pitched:
“OT Continuity Enhancement for Tier 1 Facilities”
Inside that line item?
Identity access controls
Remote access governance
Network visibility tools
Resilience testing
The result? Budget approved — because it was framed as an operational investment, not a technical request.
What to Do Next
If you're trying to defend the OT security budget this year, here's how to shift your strategy:
Start with failure scenarios. What happens if a key site loses visibility for 4 hours?
Map the impact. What's the financial loss? Compliance exposure? Safety risk?
Present solutions as safeguards, not tools. What enables safe fallback or rapid recovery?
Frame it in language the CXO understands. This is about cost avoidance, not just cyber defense.
Final Word
You're not defending firewalls.
You're defending uptime, revenue, and brand trust.
Cybersecurity is no longer a "tech initiative." In OT, it's business continuity. And that's how it needs to be presented.
If your program doesn't tell that story, someone else will. And it might be a version that gets your efforts deprioritized.
🔗 Need help translating your OT cybersecurity roadmap into a compelling business case?
Let's talk. Follow InnovAKT's page to learn more about how we help asset owners align resilience with operational performance.
