A new Palo Alto Networks survey of more than 1,600 security and operations leaders shows that visibility into operational technology (OT) networks is not enough. Legacy equipment remains the most common visibility problem, named by 52 percent of respondents, and 42 percent call legacy equipment that cannot be patched their biggest cybersecurity risk. Even among those who say they can see everything, 49 percent still list legacy OT as a challenge.
The report also suggests that adding more tools has not solved the problem. Fifty-nine percent say the tools make operations more complicated, and 56 percent report higher operating costs. Just over half of respondents still sort alerts manually or with a standard severity score. The survey also found that 59 percent experienced a significant security breach in the past twelve months, with one in five hit more than once.
Looking ahead, 95 percent of respondents are concerned about attacks powered by what the survey calls Frontier AI, and 91 percent expect AI-driven security tools to help defend against them. Yet only 19 percent currently use AI across four or more operational areas. The report also notes that 74 percent have not integrated their IT and OT security operations, with 44 percent pointing to incompatible technology and 44 percent to differing priorities between the teams. Automated alert correlation was the top pick for speeding convergence over the next two years.