Manufacturing companies are facing a perfect storm of challenges. Ransomware attacks are spiking, intellectual property theft is on the rise, and the equipment that keeps factories running wasn’t designed with modern cyber threats in mind. Legacy OT systems - some still running on Windows XP - remain critical to production, yet they’re increasingly exposed.
That’s why I was eager to attend our recent webinar, Securing Manufacturing IT & OT: A Practical Approach to Zero Trust, featuring Scott Alldridge, CEO of IP Services, and Nathanael Iversen, Chief Evangelist at Zentera. The conversation was deliberately informal - more fireside chat than slide deck - but the insights were sharp and highly relevant to anyone responsible for securing production environments.
One question early in the webinar stuck with me: Why is Zero Trust such a good fit for manufacturing?
Nathanael’s answer was blunt: “If it has an Ethernet port, it can be compromised.”
Think about that. From SCADA controllers to temperature sensors, from actuators to CNC machines - many of these devices weren’t built with security in mind. Yet as long as they’re networked, they’re potential entry points for attackers. Traditional IT tools can’t easily be applied here; you can’t install an endpoint agent on a sensor running a skinny Linux kernel. That’s exactly where Zero Trust principles become critical: identity, least privilege, segmentation, and continuous monitoring.
A few moments stood out to me as especially actionable:
Managing the intersection of IT and OT is one of the toughest challenges manufacturers face. Legacy controls, vendor access, and modern connectivity often collide in ways that create risk. That’s why at Zentera, we focus heavily on securing IT/OT convergence - helping companies protect critical assets across both domains without disrupting operations.
Over the past year, manufacturing has shifted from “we’re not a target” to front and center on the threat landscape. Ransomware groups now demand $1.5M+ as a starting point - and they know manufacturers will pay to keep lines running.
Boards are taking notice. The OT side of the house - historically separated from IT - is waking up to the fact that production networks need the same level of protection as data centers. But the path forward can’t involve major downtime or wholesale redesigns. That’s why the pragmatic, incremental approach to Zero Trust discussed in the webinar feels so relevant right now.
For me, the key lesson is that Zero Trust isn’t just an IT initiative anymore - it’s becoming the only practical way to secure manufacturing’s mix of legacy systems and modern automation. And the good news is, it doesn’t require years of effort or massive disruption to get started.
If you’d like to hear the full conversation, including real-world examples and practical first steps, the recording is now available on-demand: Securing Manufacturing IT & OT - A Practical Approach to Zero Trust