Why Australian SMBs Running Industrial Systems Should Consider Cyber Deception

Operational technology (OT) environments—the systems that control machinery, utilities, and industrial processes—present a unique challenge after a cyberattack. According to a recent Dark Reading article, one of the most frustrating realities facing defenders in OT incidents is the near-total absence of forensic evidence: no data, no trail, and no history to reconstruct what happened. This lack of visibility makes it extremely difficult to understand how attackers got in, what they did, and how to prevent a repeat incident.

The article points to cyber deception—techniques like decoy systems, fake credentials, and honeypots—as a way to address this gap. By luring attackers into interacting with convincing but fake assets, deception technology can generate the very data and trail that traditional OT monitoring often misses, giving defenders early warning and forensic detail they wouldn't otherwise have.

For small and medium businesses that rely on industrial control systems, building automation, or connected machinery, this is a reminder that OT security often lags behind IT security in visibility and monitoring. Even without deploying full deception platforms, businesses should prioritise basic logging and monitoring on OT networks so that if an incident occurs, there's something to investigate.