Security for operational technology and connected devices.
F Creative Studio 360 helps organisations in any country protect industrial control systems, operational technology and Internet of Things estates, without treating them like an office network.
Plant networks and device fleets were not built like IT.
Operational technology runs a physical process: the controllers, SCADA and distributed systems in manufacturing, energy, water and transport. The Internet of Things is the broader set of sensors and devices. Industrial IoT sits between the two.
Joining those systems to business networks and the internet makes them reachable. Many of them were designed for reliability, not for security, and a normal IT tool often cannot see the protocols they speak. F Creative Studio 360 works on that estate wherever it sits.
- Safety stays intact
- A fault in a control system can harm people, stop an essential service, or damage equipment. Security work is planned so it does not create that outcome.
- The process keeps running
- These environments are judged on uptime. Controls are introduced in a way the operation can absorb, rather than as a shutdown.
- The obligations that apply to you
- A power network, a factory, a hospital device fleet and a city sensor network are not judged against the same rule. The engagement follows the standard that applies where you operate.
- A smaller path through the estate
- Connected devices and plant networks are often joined to business systems. Segmentation and access control limit how far an intrusion can travel.
What the work covers
Engagements are scoped to the sites and devices you have. Industrial work is planned against IEC 62443 and NIST SP 800-82. Connected devices are reviewed with the OWASP Internet of Things project. Remote access follows NIST zero trust guidance.
- Assessments and audits
- A review of devices, control systems and how they connect, including risk, gaps against the standards you must meet, and testing that stays inside the written scope.
- Segmentation and architecture
- A design that separates control systems and device networks from business systems and the public internet, so a problem in one place is less likely to spread.
- Detection and monitoring
- Watching for behaviour that does not belong, including on industrial protocols and device traffic, rather than relying only on tools built for office networks.
- Incident response
- A plan for what to do when an industrial process or a large device fleet is affected, including who decides, how to contain it, and how operations continue.
- Vulnerability management
- Finding and ranking weaknesses on systems that may be old, unpatched, or unsafe to update on a normal IT cycle, with guidance your engineers can actually apply.
- Secure remote access
- Controlled access for staff and suppliers, using the ideas in zero trust, so a vendor connection is not a standing path into the plant or the device platform.
- Training
- Sessions for engineers, operators and the people who build connected products, covering the risks that show up in these environments and how to report them.
- Strategy
- A security strategy, the policies that support it, and a roadmap your team can run after the first engagement.
How an engagement runs
The sequence is the same in any country. What changes is which standard the roadmap is written against.
- 1
Discover what is connected
Build a picture of control assets, devices and the data that moves between them. Many estates do not have this inventory yet.
- 2
Assess the risk
Compare what you have with the practices and obligations that apply to your sector and country. Name the gaps that change safety or uptime.
- 3
Set the roadmap
Put the work in an order the operation can accept, with the items that reduce the most risk first.
- 4
Put controls in place
Deploy what was agreed. Anything that could interrupt a process is scheduled with the people who run it.
- 5
Keep watching
Monitoring, review and the next set of fixes, so the programme does not stop at the first report.
What you receive
- An inventory of the in-scope assets and how they connect.
- A risk view written for the people who run the operation and the people who secure it.
- A roadmap with a sequence, not a flat list of findings.
- Design notes for segmentation, remote access and monitoring where those are in scope.
- An incident plan the site can rehearse.
Standards the work can align to
F Creative Studio 360 uses the references that apply to your sector and country. The usual baseline is IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82 and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Where a sector rule applies, it is added: NIS2 for essential and important entities in the European Union, or NERC CIP for bulk electricity in North America.
Alignment is not a certification. If a buyer or regulator needs a named scheme, say so during scoping and the engagement is written to it.
Common questions
What is the difference between OT, ICS and IoT?+
Operational technology is the equipment that runs a physical process. Industrial control systems, including SCADA, distributed control systems and programmable controllers, are the common form of that in plants, energy and transport. The Internet of Things is the wider set of connected devices and sensors. Industrial IoT is that idea applied inside an industrial setting, so it overlaps with operational technology. F Creative Studio 360 scopes the engagement to the mix you actually have.
Where do you deliver this?+
For organisations in any country. The engineering questions are the same. The compliance section follows the rules that apply where you operate, such as IEC 62443, the NIST guidance for industrial systems, NIS2 for essential services in the European Union, or a sector rule such as NERC CIP for electricity in North America.
Is this only a penetration test?+
No. Authorised testing can be part of an assessment, and only inside a written scope. Most engagements also cover architecture, segmentation, monitoring, vulnerability management, remote access, response planning and training. A standard IT penetration test is a separate service.
Can the work take a site offline?+
The rules are written to avoid that. Scanning, testing and changes that could affect safety or availability are left out, or agreed in advance with the people who run the process. Downtime is not an acceptable side effect of a security engagement.
Do you replace our engineers?+
No. F Creative Studio 360 works with the people who already run the plant or the device fleet. Recommendations are written so those teams can apply them on the equipment they have, including systems that cannot take a normal software patch.
How much does it cost?+
It depends on the number of sites and devices, how much is already known about the estate, and whether the work is an assessment, a design, monitoring, or a longer programme. A scoping conversation with F Creative Studio 360 is the way to get a quote. There is no obligation to proceed.
Start with what is actually connected.
F Creative Studio 360 will look at the sites, the devices and the constraints, then say whether the next step is an assessment, a design, or a monitoring plan.