OT Security Testing

IT penetration testing targets data systems where the primary risk is information loss, unauthorized access, and service disruption. OT security testing targets systems that control physical processes where the risk extends to equipment damage, environmental releases, production loss, and human safety. The testing methodology, safety constraints, protocols involved, and the coordination required with operations teams are all fundamentally different. Many of the protocols in OT environments have no authentication or encryption by design, which changes both the attack surface and the approach.

We test across manufacturing, energy, water and wastewater, oil and gas, building automation, transportation, and critical infrastructure. This includes SCADA systems, distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), remote terminal units (RTUs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), historian servers, engineering workstations, and the network architecture that connects them to each other and to the enterprise IT environment.

Safety is the primary constraint on every OT engagement. We coordinate closely with your operations team before testing begins, establish explicit rules of engagement, define which systems and actions are in scope and which are off-limits, and use non-destructive techniques throughout. When a lab environment or staging replica is available, we use it for higher-risk testing. When testing must occur on production systems, we schedule it during maintenance windows with your operations team present. We will never execute an action that could impact a physical process without explicit, documented approval from your operations team.

We test Modbus (TCP and serial), DNP3, OPC UA, OPC DA/HDA, EtherNet/IP (CIP), BACnet, PROFINET, S7comm, HART, and proprietary protocols specific to your environment. The focus is on whether these protocols are exposed to unauthorized access, whether commands can be injected or replayed, whether traffic can be intercepted or manipulated, and whether the network architecture provides adequate isolation from untrusted networks.

Yes. When physical devices are in scope, we assess PLCs, RTUs, HMIs, and field devices at the hardware level, including debug interfaces, firmware extraction, memory analysis, and physical tamper resistance. For OT engagements, hardware testing typically focuses on whether an attacker with physical access to a device in the field or on the plant floor can reprogram it, extract credentials, or bypass access controls. For deeper embedded device testing, including full firmware reverse engineering, custom protocol analysis, and hardware teardown of IoT and connected devices, we also offer a dedicated IoT penetration testing service that can be scoped alongside or independent of an OT engagement.

We need network architecture diagrams covering both IT and OT segments, an inventory of control system assets (PLCs, RTUs, HMIs, SCADA servers, historians), documentation of any safety instrumented systems, and access to a test or staging environment if one exists. If testing will occur on production systems, we need to coordinate maintenance windows and have your operations team available. Prior security assessments or compliance audit reports are helpful but not required.

Most OT engagements run two to four weeks depending on the size of the environment, the number of control system assets, the protocols in use, and whether testing includes both the IT/OT boundary and the control system layer. Assessments that include safety system validation or require production-window scheduling tend to run longer. We provide a clear timeline during scoping, and if we discover a critical finding that poses an imminent threat to safety or operations, we escalate it to your team immediately.

The report is the beginning, not the end. You get a live debrief with the operators who ran the engagement, walking through every finding, its real-world impact, and specific remediation steps. OT remediation often requires coordination across IT, operations, engineering, and safety teams, and we structure findings to support that cross-functional conversation. If your team needs hands-on help remediating, whether that's tightening segmentation, hardening remote access, or reconfiguring controller authentication, we can work alongside your engineers. Once fixes are in place, we conduct retesting to verify they're effective.