Operational technology (OT) professionals carry a different burden than their IT peers. They take care of the critical infrastructure that runs factories, water treatment facilities, power grids and transport systems.

For years, many of these systems were physically isolated from the internet, but that is now a thing of the past.

As IT and OT networks converge, attackers have more paths to reach sensors and controllers. Real-time threat monitoring has become a baseline requirement, enabling risks to be identified as they emerge.

In such a high-stakes environment, simply reacting to threats is no longer a viable strategy. Real-time OT threat monitoring is where Darktrace is setting a new industry benchmark.

Why Threat Monitoring Is Nonnegotiable in OT

A breach in a traditional IT environment often involves data theft, financial fraud or a ransomware-locked server. Even when there’s no physical damage, downtime affects service levels and revenue.

An OT breach is a different type of crisis — its consequences are physical. Imagine a manufacturing line’s controllers being manipulated to change a product’s formula, or a water treatment plant’s controls being hijacked. OT’s unique security needs mean that traditional IT solutions are insufficient. Reactive measures fail because the damage is already done.

Antivirus software relies on knowing a threat’s signature, but this is useless against a new, zero-day attack. Firewalls do help keep intruders out, but they are often blind to threats that have already infiltrated the system. Therefore, real-time detection and response are crucial. Threats need to be stopped in seconds, not discovered after hours have passed.

What Are the Leading Solutions for Real-Time OT Threat Monitoring?

Perimeter firewalls and manual review are still useful, yet they lag when an attacker barges in with new techniques, living-off-the-land approaches or routine traffic. Signature-based detection tools collect large amounts of log data, but they create a new problem — they require a human security analyst to sift through thousands of alerts to find the one that matters. The process is far too slow for the machine-speed world of OT.

This defines what a leading solution truly is. The best platforms are those that are proactive, moving beyond legacy methods to provide an autonomous defense that spots outliers immediately. The ideal solution builds a baseline of normal for every device and user across IT and OT, flags subtle anomalies and responds with targeted actions without shutting processes down.

Standout platforms also map findings to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK for ICS, support segmented environments and give engineers context they can use during a shift. CISA’s ongoing resources for OT and industrial control systems (ICS) echo this direction. Asset visibility, network monitoring and recommended practices focus on knowing what you have, watching it closely and reacting fast the moment behavior changes.

How Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI Sets the Industry Standard

Darktrace provides a definitive solution to this challenge with its core technology — Self-Learning AI. This approach handles real-time OT defense with AI that models the pattern of life for every PLC, HMI, historian and user on your network. Instead of relying on static rules, the system observes communications and process-adjacent behavior, and then highlights deviations that matter to operations.

The result is the faster, earlier detection of unknown threats, misconfigurations, unsafe remote access or supply chain malware. Darktrace detects these deviations across OT and IT without requiring extensive tuning, which is good news for teams that are already stretched thin.

The Cyber AI Loop — Autonomous Threat Response

Self-Learning AI powers the Cyber AI Loop, a complete defense cycle with three phases — detect, investigate and respond. When the AI spots behavior outside the learned baseline, it launches an autonomous investigation to confirm context, correlate signals and decide whether to act. If action is warranted, it can step in within seconds with precise actions that avoid shutdowns.

Autonomous response is particularly valuable in OT, where every minute matters. Darktrace’s AI can throttle a single connection and isolate a compromised workstation while allowing permitted traffic to continue. This level of precision preserves production while buying time for engineers and SOC specialists to review and take action.

Unified Visibility Across OT and IT

Another major security gap is the blind spot between OT and IT. An attack might start in the corporate IT network through a phishing email, then move laterally to gain access to industrial controls. Because many security teams operate in silos, with different teams managing IT and OT, no one can see the full attack chain.

Darktrace provides a single, unified view of both environments, so you can trace a path end to end. Such cross-domain visibility aligns with CISA’s emphasis on monitoring and detection for both sides of a converged network. When you see the whole picture, you can easily coordinate with operations, avoid downtime and restore normal service faster.

A Platform Built for Industrial Environments

The Darktrace platform is purpose-built to address specific challenges OT professionals face. The system provides value to the engineers who manage the equipment themselves, not just the analysts in a security operations center.

Dedicated Workflows for OT Engineers

Cybersecurity dashboards can be filled with jargon that confuses OT engineers. Darktrace’s real-time OT threat monitoring platform has specialized workflows and a visual interface that translates complex cyber events into practical context. This empowers the OT team to understand the security event and work with IT to resolve it immediately.

Segmentation-Aware Risk Modeling

Industrial networks are segmented to protect critical processes. Darktrace’s AI understands this architecture, enabling it to model risk more accurately. For example, the AI knows that a laptop in the corporate guest Wi-Fi zone has a different level of priority than a primary controller on the factory floor. This helps security teams prioritize vulnerabilities.

Next-Generation Endpoint Visibility

Legacy systems are prevalent across many industries, creating a major blind spot. Darktrace addresses this by providing agentless visibility — monitoring network traffic from the device without the need for any agent installations. The technology can still learn the system’s normal patterns and detect if a legacy endpoint is compromised.

Proven Success and Industry Recognition

Darktrace’s industry leadership is validated by real-world success stories and feedback from third-party experts. These examples illustrate how its autonomous defense plays out against sophisticated threats.

Protecting a Utility Company

A municipal water and power provider needed protection for critical infrastructure, but it had a one-person security team and a legacy system. After deployment, Darktrace quickly learned its unique environment and patterns and detected threats the old system completely missed, such as crypto-mining malware. The result was 264 analyst hours saved and real-time protection from then on.

Validated as a Market Leader by Omdia

Independent analyst Omdia named Darktrace as a market leader in its 2025 Market Radar for OT cybersecurity platforms. The report highlighted the company’s Self-Learning AI, its ability to cover IT and OT environments simultaneously, and its autonomous response features as key differentiators. This recognition from a renowned analyst firm is objective proof of the platform’s capabilities.

The Future of OT Security Is Autonomous

Industrial networks are evolving faster than manual processes can keep up, so defense needs to learn the environment in real time and act at machine speed. Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI, unified IT/OT visibility and industrial-first workflows deliver early threat detection, targeted containment, and technology that speaks to both operations and IT.