Energy and utilities companies are reporting high levels of operational technology (OT) cyber incidents despite widespread confidence in the maturity of their security programmes.
The 2026 Operational Technology Cybersecurity Benchmark Report, based on a survey of more than 600 industrial cybersecurity leaders, found that 91% of energy and utilities respondents had experienced a significant OT cybersecurity incident in the previous 12 months.
However, 88% of respondents across critical infrastructure sectors described their OT cybersecurity programmes as mature. Just 21% said they had a complete inventory of their OT assets.
Only a third of organisations surveyed had fully integrated OT into a centralised security operations centre, while just 20% continuously monitored connected devices such as cameras and sensors.
The report found that the average organisation experienced 16.2 hours of downtime from its most significant cybersecurity incident, with losses reaching up to $500,000 (£370,000) per hour.
Artificial intelligence is also expected to play a growing role in OT security. Almost all respondents expect AI to affect OT cybersecurity over the next two to three years. Yet only 23% currently use autonomous or agentic operations for threat detection.
The research suggests organisations with stronger visibility across their OT environments are four times better positioned to identify threats, respond to incidents and restore operations more quickly.
The findings also point to the increasing operational consequences of cyber-attacks. Incidents are no longer viewed solely as IT problems, with disruptions potentially affecting employee safety, customer services and production.
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