From connected assets to managed risk in Nordic operations

Netcontrol is an official MSSP partner of Nozomi Networks, the world leader in OT cybersecurity for critical infrastructure. Nozomi Networks boosts digital transformation by safeguarding essential infrastructure, industrial and government systems against cyber threats. With the DOME cybersecurity service for any OT network, the strategic partnership of Netcontrol and Nozomi Networks brings advanced network visibility, asset management and threat detection available for operators in OT environments.

Operational environments across the Nordic region are entering a new phase. Connectivity is accelerating across energy, utilities, transportation, and industrial sectors, driven by wireless technologies, cloud platforms, and advanced automation. Over the next few years, this shift will fundamentally change how cyber risk is created, distributed, and managed in OT environments.

Based on what we are seeing across critical infrastructure globally and how those patterns are materialising in the Nordics, three developments are likely to shape OT security strategies through 2026. Each reflects a broader move away from reactive security and toward risk-driven asset intelligence.

Prediction 1: Wireless will become the primary source of OT risk

Wireless technologies are no longer peripheral to Nordic operations:

• Private LTE and 5G support substations and renewable energy sites
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enable mobility across manufacturing, ports, and logistics
• LoRaWAN connects remote assets across large geographic areas.

Over the next 12–24 months, wireless assets are likely to become the dominant source of unmanaged OT risk.

Unlike traditional wired infrastructure, wireless assets are often deployed rapidly, managed by multiple teams, and monitored inconsistently. This creates blind spots that attackers can exploit. Rogue access points, unauthorized devices, misconfigured building automation systems, and covert cellular connections can persist undetected, increasing exposure without immediately affecting operations.

For Nordic operators managing geographically dispersed infrastructure, this risk compounds quickly. As a result, we expect security teams to shift from periodic wireless assessments to continuous wireless security monitoring, combining visibility with physical location, authorization status, and operational context. In partnership with Nozomi Networks, Netcontrol offers the DOME cybersecurity service for operators in critical infrastructure.

Wireless security will increasingly be treated not as a network hygiene issue, but as a core component of OT risk management.

Prediction 2: Dynamic, AI-enriched asset profiles will replace static inventories

As OT, IT, IoT, and wireless environments converge, the concept of a “complete asset inventory” is becoming obsolete. Assets change, move, update, and communicate in ways that static lists cannot capture.

We expect dynamic, AI-enriched asset profiles to become the foundation of OT risk decisions.

AI is indispensable for enriching asset profiles to achieve near 100% asset inventory accuracy. It can augment sensor-collected data by inferring asset types and roles based on traffic patterns and tapping a trove of details from matching devices to fill in missing data fields. This asset intelligence provides continuously enriched context about assets: their role in operations, communication behaviour, firmware state, vulnerability exposure, and relationship to safety or production processes. This context allows organizations to move beyond generic security responses and prioritize actions based on impact.

In practice, Nordic organizations are increasingly asking different questions:

• Which assets introduce the greatest operational risk?
• Which vulnerabilities actually matter in this environment?
• Which deviations represent real threats versus normal behaviour?

This shift is particularly important as regulatory expectations increase. Frameworks such as the NIS2 directive emphasise proportional, risk-based security. Demonstrating that decisions are driven by an understanding of asset criticality and operational impact will become a baseline requirement.

Prediction 3: Contextual accuracy will displace alert volume

A growing number of Nordic OT security teams are pushing back on platforms that generate high alert volumes with limited context.

Contextually rich alerts that are both accurate and actionable will become a key measure of security maturity.

In highly automated environments, false positives do more than consume analyst time. They reduce trust in security tooling and increase the likelihood that real issues are missed. As a result, organizations are seeking platforms that understand asset behaviour and suppress benign activity.

This trend is tightly coupled with enriched asset profiles. When systems understand what an asset is, how it normally behaves, and how it supports operations, they can surface only those events that meaningfully change the risk profile. The result is clearer priorities, faster response, and more confident decision-making.

AI will be the enabler across all three trends

Underlying all these developments is a broader shift toward AI-driven analysis. As environments scale, manual triage becomes impractical. We expect AI to play an increasingly central role in correlating signals across OT, IT, IoT, and wireless domains, explaining risk in operational terms, guiding investigation workflows and ensuring teams never miss a critical issue.

The DOME cybersecurity service provides complete visibility and control over the customer’s critical infrastructure by leveraging AI to enrich device profiles and improve security posture.

For Nordic operators, this aligns with a strong focus on efficiency, clarity, and reliability. AI is not replacing expertise; it is enabling teams to apply it consistently across complex environments where delays or misjudgements can have real-world consequences.

Looking ahead

Taken together, these predictions point to a clear direction for OT security in the Nordics: from visibility to intelligence, and from intelligence to managed risk.
The organizations best positioned for the next phase of digitalisation will be those that:

• Maintain continuous awareness across all asset types, including wireless
• Use context to understand operational impact
• Cut through alert volume to focus on what really matters
• Leverage AI to turn complexity into actionable risk insight

As operators work with partners such as Netcontrol and Nozomi Networks, the focus will remain on enabling innovation while protecting the availability, safety, and trust that critical services depend on.

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Author

Andreas Nordenadler is the Regional Sales Director for the Nordics at Nozomi Networks. With extensive cybersecurity experience, Andreas is responsible for supporting industrial organizations and critical infrastructures in the region to secure and monitor their OT & IoT networks. Andreas comes from a long experience working with IT and OT security, having held positions at Microsoft, Bluecoat, Radware, CyberArk, Extrahop and Cyberbit before joining Nozomi Networks.