Plant Manager’s Guide: OT vs IT Security in Pharma—What to Fix First

If you’re a pharma plant manager, start with OT security controls that protect uptime and audit readiness—then harden IT.

What counts as OT in a pharma plant

• PLC/SCADA and control networks

• Batch systems and MES

• Historians and data collectors

• Remote access gateways

• Lab/quality systems that touch production
  

Why OT security is different

• Availability and safety come first

• Legacy protocols and long asset lifecycles

• Change control and validation constraints

• Segmentation is more important than patching alone
  

A practical first 30 days plan

• Map zones (IT, OT, DMZ) and critical assets

• Lock down remote access

• Centralize logs for key OT events

• Run a ransomware tabletop exercise
  

Request a security assessment

Want a quick, practical OT-security gap check for your pharma plant? Submit the assessment request and we’ll respond within 1 business day.

Use the form: Request a Security Assessment

Related reading

Related: Purdue model for pharma plants — /post/purdue-model-for-pharma-plants-zones-conduits-and-firewall-placement

Related: Ransomware readiness checklist — /post/ransomware-readiness-for-pharma-plants-incident-response-checklist-for-operations

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