India's OT blind spot: The risk beneath digital growth

As connectivity and compute scale nationwide, weak OT systems in telco and data centre environments are emerging as a major security and reliability risk.

- BY DAVID SEHYEON BAEK

India's digital economy is expanding at a pace matched by few other countries. Telcos are rolling out 5G across the nation, data centres are multiplying in key metros, and Al-driven services are driving record demand for compute power. Behind this surge stands a quieter but essential foundation: the operational technology that ensures the physical stability of India's digital networks.

While the country invests heavily in cloud security, application defence, and enterprise IT controls, the OT layer—the machinery powering the digital world—remains one of the most exposed and least governed areas.

This gap is becoming more consequential as digital dependency increases. The more India connects people, businesses, and public services, the more its reliability hinges on uninterrupted power, stable cooling, remote automation, and control systems that were never designed with modern cyber risks in mind.

Many of these components offer minimal authentication, limited access control, and virtually no traceability. They prioritise uptime, not cyber protection. When these systems are breached, the incident may not resemble a headline-grabbing ransomware attack, but the consequences can be just as damaging. A single compromised controller can disrupt national capacity, degrade service availability, or trigger physical failures across a facility.

OT VULNERABILITIES IN DC AND TELCO SITES

Telecom operators rely heavily on OT systems across their networks. Cooling units in switching centres, generator controllers at tower sites, and environmental sensors inside fibre hubs play critical roles in ensuring network continuity. If manipulated, these components can cause outages that ripple across entire regions. Attackers do not need to breach the carrier's digital core; they only need to interfere with a cooling sequence, disrupt a fuel controller, or shut down an HVAC asset.