Top Highlights
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Stuxnet sparked Mike Holcomb’s move from IT security to OT/ICS, where he went on to protect power, rail, manufacturing, and refinery environments.
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He makes the field easier to enter: through UtilSec’s free practical learning resources, hands-on tools, and BSidesICS/OT and BSides Greenville conferences.
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His core message: start with the basics and work together. Build backups, asset visibility, secure networks, incident response, and vulnerability management—even with limited resources—and unite IT and OT teams.
- OT security takes time and real-world practice. Holcomb urges newcomers to learn both cybersecurity and engineering, while warning that attackers—and AI—are advancing faster than many defenders.
The Issue
Industrial Cyber reports that Mike Holcomb turned a long-standing interest in computer security into a career protecting industrial systems. In 2010, news that Stuxnet had damaged physical equipment—and concealed its activity from control-room operators—prompted him to ask how power plants and other essential services could be defended. He sought guidance from plant operators and engineers, then applied what he learned across power generation, rail, manufacturing, and refinery environments. That work also showed him a stark gap: many industrial operators lacked the money, staff, and training available to larger organizations.
In response, Holcomb began sharing practical, often free learning resources through LinkedIn, YouTube, UtilSec, and GitHub. He also founded cybersecurity events to help newcomers and practitioners connect, including BSidesICS/OT. The effort is meant to make the field easier to enter and help organizations protect services people rely on. Industrial Cyber highlights his community-building work and awards, while reporting his broader message: IT and OT teams must work together, and even resource-limited operators can strengthen security through steady, practical steps.
What’s at Stake?
The industrial cybersecurity risks highlighted by practitioner Mike Holcomb can affect any business that relies on connected equipment, operational technology, or third-party systems. A compromised network may halt production, interrupt essential services, or expose sensitive data. Worse, attackers who reach control systems can threaten physical safety and damage equipment. Consequently, a business may face lost revenue, recovery costs, legal penalties, and weakened customer trust. Even firms without factories can suffer when a supplier or service provider is breached. Strong security, careful monitoring, and tested recovery plans therefore matter across every industry.
Possible Actions
For industrial cybersecurity practitioner and community builder Mike Holcomb, timely remediation helps contain risk before a weakness disrupts safe, reliable operations.
Mitigation Steps
- Prioritize by risk: Identify affected assets and assess exploitability, operational impact, safety implications, and exposure, consistent with NIST CSF’s Identify function.
- Apply safe fixes: Test patches or configuration changes in a representative environment, then deploy through approved operational change-control procedures.
- Reduce exposure meanwhile: Where immediate patching is unsafe or impractical, isolate vulnerable systems, restrict access, disable unnecessary services, and use compensating controls.
- Strengthen detection: Monitor relevant network and system activity for signs of exploitation; escalate anomalies through established response procedures.
- Prepare recovery: Verify offline or otherwise protected backups, confirm restoration procedures, and preserve evidence if compromise is suspected.
- Confirm and document: Validate that the fix works without impairing operations, record residual risk and approvals, and update asset and vulnerability records.
- Improve over time: Review the incident or remediation outcome and adjust governance, protection, detection, response, and recovery practices.
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Disclaimer: The information provided may not always be accurate or up to date. Please do your own research, as the cybersecurity landscape evolves rapidly. Intended for secondary references purposes only.
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