Most organizations running operational technology (OT) or connected medical devices do not keep those systems on their own dedicated network segments, according to new research from Forescout’s Vedere Labs.
The cybersecurity firm’s researchers examined 47,700 network segments holding more than 2.5 million devices across 209 organizations, sorting each device into one of four categories: IT, OT, IoT, or medical (IoMT).
At the surface level, segmentation looks reasonably solid. The researchers found that 62% of segments contained devices from a single category, and the most common setups were IT devices alone (54%) or paired with IoT gear (26%).
However, that picture changes once OT and IoMT devices are isolated for a closer look. Of all segments that included at least one OT device, only 13% consisted of OT devices alone, while the rest shared space with IT or IoT equipment. Segments with medical devices fared worse, with just 6% dedicated solely to IoMT.
IP cameras stood out as the least isolated device type in the dataset. Cameras appeared in 2,266 segments, roughly 5% of the total, and only 51 of those, about 2%, contained cameras exclusively.