The free assessment helps organisations identify gaps in operational technology incident response, examine coordination across IT and engineering teams, and determine where simulations are needed to validate preparedness for attacks that could disrupt industrial operations.
Cloud Range has introduced the Cloud Range OT Cyber Readiness Assessment, a free resource designed to help organisations identify gaps in their preparedness for cyber incidents affecting operational technology (OT).
The assessment is intended for IT, security, OT and engineering teams. It examines their understanding of industrial environments, allocation of responsibilities and ability to detect, investigate, respond to and recover from incidents affecting operations.
“Organizations can have incident response plans, security tools, and experienced teams in place without knowing how effectively those capabilities will work together when an attack affects operations,” said Debbie Gordon, CEO of Cloud Range. “The first step is understanding where teams are prepared, where they may be relying on assumptions, and where further validation is needed. The stakes are different in OT because decisions made during a cyber incident can have direct operational consequences.”
Assessment covers seven areas of readiness
The assessment examines seven areas, including awareness of critical assets and dependencies, understanding of threats and operational risks, coordination between IT and OT teams, detection and investigation, incident response, recovery, and validation through cyberattack simulations.
Participants select “Ready”, “Developing” or “Unsure” responses. Rather than assigning a numerical score, the assessment identifies uncertainties and areas requiring further attention.
Teams can complete it independently and compare their responses to identify differences in understanding, unclear responsibilities or assumptions about preparedness. According to Cloud Range, this process is intended to support discussions before an incident requires coordinated action.
Operational decisions require coordination
The release highlights the physical consequences of incidents involving OT, where response decisions can affect equipment, industrial processes, production availability and safety. Actions such as isolating systems or shutting down devices may require additional operational evaluation.
While IT and security teams focus on detecting malicious activity, containing threats and investigating compromised systems, OT and engineering personnel bring knowledge of equipment limitations and process dependencies.
Cloud Range also noted that attacks originating in enterprise IT systems, third-party access or supply chains can affect industrial operations, reinforcing the need for coordination across functions.
Simulations provide further validation
The company said the assessment can identify preparedness gaps but cannot establish how teams would perform during an actual incident. It positions realistic simulations as a further step to evaluate investigation, decision-making and coordination.
Cloud Range’s OT Cyber Range supports flat and Purdue-model industrial network architectures, enabling teams to examine how connectivity, segmentation and system dependencies influence attacks and response. Hardware-in-the-loop capabilities also allow physical OT laboratory equipment to connect to the range.
The company’s simulations cover scenarios including ransomware, supply-chain compromise, credential theft and lateral movement. Performance measurements are used to assess detection, investigation and incident response.
Cloud Range reported reductions of up to 66% in mean time to detect and improvements of up to 30% in overall incident response time across customer engagements. It clarified that these results relate to its broader cyber readiness programmes and are not specific to OT environments.
