Securing the Unseen: Why IoT and OT Devices Are a Hidden Business Risk

November 2025

Securing the Unseen: Why IoT and OT Devices Are a Hidden Business Risk

The modern enterprise is no longer confined to servers, laptops, and cloud workloads. Today, everything from smart printers and cameras to industrial sensors and medical devices is connected to the network. These Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) assets are expanding rapidly - and with them, the attack surface.

For executives, this isn’t just an IT challenge. It’s a strategic risk that touches on safety, compliance, and business continuity.

The Challenge: A Growing, Unmanaged Landscape

Unlike traditional IT assets, IoT and OT devices are often unmanaged, hard to monitor, and poorly secured.

1. Limited Visibility
   IoT/OT tools often rely on built-in sensors to discover devices, but these can’t always identify every asset on the network. Printers, scanners, and short-lived devices that connect intermittently are frequently missed.

2. Shadow Devices and Rogue Access
   New devices are added - sometimes without IT approval - and old ones are retired or moved. Without centralised visibility, organisations struggle to track what’s connected, opening the door for unauthorised access.

3. Anomalous Traffic Goes Unnoticed
   Once connected, IoT/OT devices generate traffic that often looks routine but can mask malicious activity. A compromised smart sensor or medical device could quietly exfiltrate sensitive data or provide a foothold for lateral movement across the network.

Why This Matters to Executives

The business implications are significant:

• Operational risk: An outage in OT can halt production lines, disrupt healthcare delivery, or impact critical infrastructure.

• Regulatory exposure: Many industries, from healthcare (HIPAA) to energy and utilities, face strict compliance requirements. Undiscovered devices put compliance at risk.

• Financial impact: Breaches involving IoT/OT are costly, with downtime and recovery expenses far exceeding those of standard IT incidents.

• Reputational damage: A single compromised IoT device can cause public embarrassment and undermine customer trust.

In short, blind spots in IoT/OT visibility translate directly into strategic, financial, and reputational risk.

Closing the Gaps with Deep Observability

Relying solely on IoT/OT tools is no longer enough. By integrating deep observability, organisations gain:

• Complete device discovery: Every device, from short-lived sensors to long-term industrial controllers, is identified as it connects or disconnects from the network.

• Anomalous traffic detection: Intelligence at the network layer helps distinguish between normal device behaviour and malicious activity.

• Simplified change management: As infrastructure evolves, deep observability ensures that new devices are automatically monitored without manual updates.

• Unified security posture: IoT/OT traffic is analysed in the same visibility framework as IT, reducing silos and simplifying governance.

With Matrium Technologies and partners like Gigamon, organisations can bring their IoT/OT landscape under control - without disrupting operations or requiring costly re-architecture.

The Executive Takeaway

IoT and OT devices are no longer edge cases - they are central to business operations and, increasingly, to cyber risk. Ignoring them leaves organisations vulnerable to operational disruption, compliance penalties, and reputational harm.

For executives, the priority is clear: demand visibility into every device on the network, not just traditional IT assets.

By complementing IoT/OT tools with deep observability, organisations can ensure that their expanding device ecosystem strengthens, rather than undermines, business resilience.