Before you can secure your OT network, you have to understand it.

In this episode of the Zeroed-In Podcast, our host Olivier Bloch sits down with Dan Frechette, OT security expert and former member of the CyberX Labs team (now Microsoft Defender for IoT).

Together, they unpack the fundamentals of OT visibility, asset discovery, and passive network monitoring. They also cover how modern tools like Microsoft Defender for IoT help organizations identify risks before attackers exploit them.

Topics Include:

• Why you can’t secure what you don’t know exists

• The critical differences between IT and OT networks

• Real-world OT cyberattacks like TRITON

• How to passively discover every device in your plant network

• Why security may actually bridge IT and OT, not divide them

If you work in manufacturing, utilities, or industrial cybersecurity... this is your crash course in understanding what’s really running on your network, and how to defend it.

Subscribe for more conversations on Industrial IoT, OT Security, and AI in Manufacturing.

⏱ Chapters

00:00 Intro: Understanding OT Infrastructure

01:42 Dan Frechette’s Background in OT Security

03:30 Why You Can’t Secure What You Don’t Know

06:15 The Old “Air Gap” Myth and Why It’s Failing

09:10 IT vs OT: The Two Worlds Explained

13:25 Real OT Attack Stories (TRITON, Oldsmar, etc.)

18:20 How to Map Your OT Network Passively

22:10 Monitoring and Detecting Anomalies

27:15 Defender for IoT: Setup and First Results

31:40 Bridging the IT/OT Divide with Security

36:00 Final Takeaways

🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero: Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate.

📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/

📌 Follow Dan Frechette on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-frechette/

Follow Thing-Zero on:

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- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero

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- Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com

#IoT #OT #MicrosoftSecurity #DefenderForIoT #manufacturing

In this episode of The Zeroed-In Podcast by Thing-Zero, we sit down with Kudzai Manditereza from HiveMQ and founder of Industry40tv, to get practical about data in manufacturing. We dig into MQTT’s real job in the stack, how to bridge OT and IT without breaking culture, and why a Unified Namespace is the backbone for reliable analytics and AI at scale.

We talk with Kudzai about:

• MQTT vs OPC UA vs field-bus protocols, and where each fits

• The OT and IT priorities problem, and how to decouple with MQTT

• UNS as an event-driven backbone for orchestration, not a silver bullet

• Edge-first thinking: push rules to the edge, send only what matters

• Governance that scales: RBAC, validation, and killing the “wild west” broker

• Standardizing KPIs like OEE across plants without slowing teams downMake sure to subscribe for more real-world OT, data, and AI conversations.

⏱ Chapters:00:00 Intro

01:00 MQTT’s lane vs OPC UA and field buses

06:45 OT-IT culture and security priorities

12:40 MQTT in the DMZ as a data diode

17:10 Governance, RBAC, and broker hygiene

20:40 Edge intelligence and pushing rules down

26:30 Standardizing OEE and data models across sites

33:10 UNS today and where it’s going next

39:20 Wrap up🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero: Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate.📌 Follow Kudzai Manditereza on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kudzaimanditereza/📌 Follow Olivier Bloch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivierbloch/📌 Follow Ryan Kershaw on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryankershaw/Follow Thing-Zero on:- YouTube: YouTube.com/@thing-zero - Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/thing-zero - 𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954- Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com#IndustrialAutomation #SmartFactory #IntelligentManufacturing #AI #OT

AI in the real world isn’t a keynote... it’s a factory floor, a power bill, and a risk register.

In this episode, Marvin Tansley (Thing-Zero) sits down with Alec Coughlin (AI with Alec) to map the jump from hype to hard results: securing brownfield OT, preparing a data/knowledge-centric estate, and using agents to augment operators—not replace them.

We cover the shift from app-centric silos to platforms, prescriptive analytics that drive next-best actions, and the leadership moves that make it stick: psychological safety, exec bootcamps, incentives that reward smart risk, and “hands-in-dirt” adoption.

If you’re a CTO/CIO, plant leader, or ops owner wondering how to compete when AI becomes table stakes, this is the playbook you've been looking for.

⏱ Chapters:

0:00 Intros & setup

0:24 Alec’s origin: RPA spark → “AI with Alec”

1:14 Marvin’s path: industrial engineering to AI

2:00 Practical vs hype; LLMs get “evolutionary” + Palantir/data platforms

5:31 Augmentation vs automation (factory story)

9:07 Brownfield OT realities & security-by-design

12:50 From app-centric to data/knowledge-centric (why it’s existential)

16:45 Analytics ladder: descriptive → predictive → prescriptive

19:08 Ransomware lesson ($20M/day) & designing safety in

40:56 Culture, incentives, “make the beer taste better”

42:32 Closing Thoughts

→ The Zeroed in Podcast is also now available on your favorite podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/zeroedinpod

📌 Follow Alec Coughlin on LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/alecchh/

📌 Follow Marvin Tansley on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-tansley-a914551/

🎧 Brought to you by Thing-Zero — Secure. Predict. Augment. Automate.

Follow us on:

YouTube: YouTube.com/@thing-zero

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thing-zero/

𝕏: https://x.com/ThingZ96954/

Web: https://www.Thing-Zero.com/

#AIwithAlec #AI #Robotics #MachineLearning #ML