The OT Security Gap Is Africa's Most Dangerous Blind Spot
When organisations think about cybersecurity, they almost always focus on IT systems — servers, laptops, cloud workloads. But behind the scenes, a vast and largely invisible attack surface has been quietly expanding: Operational Technology (OT).
OT encompasses the industrial control systems (ICS), SCADA platforms, PLCs, and connected devices that run physical infrastructure — power grids, oil pipelines, water treatment plants, manufacturing lines. In Africa, these systems underpin the continent's most critical services, yet they were designed decades before cybersecurity was a consideration.
The result is a dangerous gap. IT security teams have tools, skills, and budgets. OT environments are often unmonitored, unpatched, and unknown to the CISO's office entirely.
"Over 70% of OT environments in Africa have never undergone a formal security assessment. Attackers know this."
What Claroty Does
Claroty is the global leader in cyber-physical systems (CPS) security — the discipline that bridges IT and OT security. Their platform, the Claroty Platform, delivers:
- Asset Discovery & Inventory: Passive, non-intrusive discovery of every OT, IoT, and XIoT device on your network — including assets that have never appeared in any CMDB.
- Vulnerability Management: Continuously maps discovered assets against the largest OT/ICS vulnerability database in the world, prioritising by exploitability and operational impact.
- Threat Detection: Behavioural analytics and purpose-built OT threat intelligence detect anomalies, policy violations, and active attacks in real time.
- Secure Remote Access: A vendor-neutral, purpose-built remote access solution that replaces dangerous jump servers and generic VPNs for OT environments.
- Network Protection: Integration with firewalls and network controls to enforce micro-segmentation policies between OT and IT zones.
Why Claroty + Sechpoint for Africa
Sechpoint is Claroty's authorised distribution partner across Africa. This partnership combines Claroty's world-class OT security platform with Sechpoint's deep regional knowledge — understanding the specific industrial environments, regulatory frameworks, and connectivity realities of the African market.
Our team has deployed Claroty in:
- Energy and utility companies managing national grid infrastructure
- Oil & gas operators with upstream and downstream SCADA environments
- Manufacturing facilities with legacy PLC networks spanning multiple decades
- Water management authorities responsible for municipal distribution networks
Key Differentiators
What sets Claroty apart from generic network security vendors:
- OT-native protocols. Claroty speaks Modbus, DNP3, IEC 61850, PROFINET, and 450+ other OT protocols natively. Generic IT security tools are blind to these.
- Passive, zero-impact monitoring. Unlike IT security tools that actively probe, Claroty monitors passively — critical for environments where a probe packet to a PLC can cause a physical shutdown.
- Bi-directional SIEM/SOC integration. OT alerts flow into your existing SOC alongside IT alerts, giving your analysts a unified operational picture.
- Gartner Leader. Claroty is consistently recognised as a leader in Gartner's CPS Security Magic Quadrant.
Interested in a Claroty demo or OT security assessment? Sechpoint's certified engineers are ready to help. Contact us today.
Tags: OT Security · Claroty · ICS/SCADA · XIoT · Industrial Cybersecurity