RESEARCH from Forescout’s Vedere Labs suggests that most organisations using operational technology (OT) or connected medical devices do not keep those systems on dedicated network segments. The researchers analysed 47,700 segments containing more than 2.5 million devices across 209 organisations, classifying equipment as IT, OT, IoT or medical (IoMT). Although 62% of segments contained devices from only one category, just 13% of segments containing OT devices held OT equipment exclusively. Isolation was weaker for medical systems: only 6% of segments containing IoMT devices were dedicated to them.
IP cameras were the least isolated device type in the study. They appeared in 2,266 segments, but only 51 of those—around 2%—contained cameras alone. The average segment contained 54 devices across four device types, while devices belonged to an average of 1.5 segments. Forescout identified the largest average potential blast radius in business and professional services, healthcare, and oil and gas.
In retail, only 95 of 478 segments containing point-of-sale systems—about 20%—were dedicated to POS equipment; the remainder commonly also contained printers, VoIP equipment or cameras.
Forescout said organisations should prioritise visibility and containment rather than immediately redesigning their networks. Its recommendations include maintaining a complete inventory, identifying risky combinations of device types, moving critical OT and IoMT systems away from general IT networks, splitting oversized segments and restricting unnecessary traffic between segments. The research describes exposure and potential impact, rather than confirming exploitation of these network arrangements.