46% OT Incidents, 90% Confidence: The Gap in Rockwell's Research
According to Rockwell Automation research published on October 8, 2026, nearly half of industrial organizations suffered a cyber incident in the past year, yet almost all say they are ready to contain one. The weak point identified is IT/OT integration.
On October 8, 2026, Rockwell Automation released the research "Operational Resilience in the Age of Connectivity", covered by Industrial Cyber. The central finding is a contrast: 46% of industrial organizations had a cyber incident in the past year, while 90% say they are confident they could contain one.
A note on the limits of this reading: the article I consulted was truncated and did not report sample size or survey methodology. Rockwell is also a vendor in the sector, so the data and recommendations reflect a vendor perspective. Rockwell's own research page was not directly reviewed.
The gap between incidents and confidence
If nearly one organization in two has experienced an incident within twelve months, such widespread confidence in the ability to contain one looks optimistic at best. The gap is the study's main result and suggests that many operators may overestimate their preparedness, especially where visibility and recovery procedures have never been tested.
Security, growth and investment
Cybersecurity is cited among the biggest external obstacles to growth over the next 12 months, second only to staffing shortages. The percentage is reported as 34% in one place in the article and 35% in another, so the exact value is uncertain.
On the investment side, 62% have already adopted security platforms such as asset inventory, intrusion detection and secure remote access. Cybersecurity also ranks as the second-highest driver of return on investment among technologies, with one of the highest ROIs over the past 12 months according to respondents.
Where exposure is concentrated
IT/OT integration points rank among the most vulnerable areas, right after IT systems and corporate networks. 37% believe that securing the IT/OT architecture will deliver positive business outcomes over the next five years.
45% plan to use AI and machine learning for security in the next 12 months. Rockwell notes, however, that AI adoption, IT/OT convergence and broader data flows each add dependencies and points of exposure.
Rockwell's recommendations
According to the study, limited visibility is a common barrier to resilience: legacy systems, serially connected devices and temporary connections all contribute. The recommendations are:
- start with asset visibility, prioritizing remediation by operational impact and not only by vulnerability severity;
- continuous asset lifecycle management;
- risk-based vulnerability management;
- secure architecture;
- continuous monitoring;
- tested incident response and recovery.
Putting it into practice
The IT/OT integration layer is where custom integrations, data pipelines, edge gateways and AI projects meet. For technical and IT leaders, three concrete checks follow from this picture:
- inventory every point of contact between IT and OT, including temporary connections, and assign an owner to each;
- rank remediation priorities by impact on the production process;
- test the response plan with exercises before trusting your self-reported security.
The most useful message of the research, despite the caveats on methodology, is that confidence should rest on verified evidence: an up-to-date inventory, monitoring and proven recoveries, especially as new data flows and AI projects widen the exposed surface.