A Core Focus at Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026
Introduction
Critical infrastructure forms the foundation of modern society, supporting essential services, economic activity, public safety, communications, energy, transportation, healthcare, and industrial operations. As these environments become increasingly connected and dependent on digital technologies, the consequences of cyber disruption are becoming more significant.
The convergence of Operational Technology (OT), Information Technology (IT), cloud platforms, connected devices, and increasingly complex supply chains has created a broader and more interconnected attack surface. Organisations must therefore look beyond traditional cybersecurity controls and develop security strategies that protect not only individual systems, but the wider operational ecosystems on which critical services depend.
Recognising the growing importance of operational resilience and infrastructure protection, The Playbook for Securing Critical Systems has been identified as one of the core focus areas at Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026. The focus will examine practical strategies for improving visibility, managing third-party risks, strengthening incident response, and maintaining continuity when critical systems and operational environments come under pressure.
Why this matters now
Critical systems are increasingly exposed to sophisticated cyber threats, supply chain vulnerabilities, ransomware, insider risks, and disruptions affecting interconnected technology environments. A compromise within one part of an operational ecosystem can quickly create consequences across suppliers, partners, production environments, and essential services.
At the same time, organisations are facing growing complexity as legacy OT environments are connected to modern IT infrastructure, cloud services, remote access technologies, and third-party platforms. This connectivity can deliver significant operational benefits, but it can also make it more difficult to understand where vulnerabilities exist and how a disruption in one environment could affect another.
Effective protection therefore requires organisations to develop a complete understanding of their operational environments, dependencies, suppliers, and potential attack paths. Visibility must be combined with practical risk management, strong collaboration, tested response capabilities, and resilient operating models.
For these reasons, Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026 will explore how organisations can build practical security strategies that protect critical systems, reduce operational risk, and maintain continuity in high-stakes environments.
Strengthening OT Visibility and Situational Awareness
Operational Technology environments are increasingly becoming connected to enterprise networks, cloud platforms, remote management systems, and external suppliers. While this connectivity can improve efficiency and enable greater control, it also introduces additional pathways through which cyber threats can reach operational environments.
A strong security strategy begins with visibility. Organisations need to understand what assets exist within their OT environments, how systems communicate, which technologies are business-critical, and where dependencies exist across operational networks. Without this information, identifying vulnerabilities and prioritising security investments becomes significantly more difficult.
Comprehensive monitoring and situational awareness can help organisations identify unusual activity, detect emerging threats, and understand the potential operational impact of security incidents before they escalate. By combining asset visibility, network monitoring, threat intelligence, and risk analysis, organisations can move from reactive security towards proactive risk management.
Together, these capabilities provide security and operational teams with a clearer understanding of the environments they are responsible for protecting.
Impact on Next-Generation IT Security
As OT environments become increasingly interconnected, organisations are focusing on:
- Establishing comprehensive visibility across OT and IT environments.
- Identifying critical assets, systems, and operational dependencies.
- Monitoring network activity and detecting anomalous behaviour.
- Prioritising vulnerabilities according to operational impact.
- Improving collaboration between cybersecurity, IT, engineering, and operational teams.
Discussions at Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026 will examine how organisations can improve situational awareness and establish the visibility required to identify and mitigate threats before they become major operational disruptions.
Managing Supplier and Third-Party Risks
Critical systems rarely operate in isolation. Organisations depend on suppliers, technology providers, contractors, managed service providers, software vendors, and other third parties to maintain essential operations. These relationships can introduce vulnerabilities that organisations may have limited visibility or control over.
A security weakness within a supplier’s environment can potentially create consequences for the organisation it supports. Third-party access, software dependencies, remote maintenance, shared infrastructure, and interconnected networks can all create pathways through which attackers may attempt to reach critical environments.
Managing these risks requires a structured approach to supplier security. Organisations need to understand which third parties have access to critical systems, assess their security capabilities, establish appropriate contractual requirements, and continuously monitor risks throughout the supplier relationship.
Strong collaboration is equally important. Security cannot be managed effectively when organisations and suppliers operate in isolation. Clear responsibilities, communication channels, escalation procedures, and joint response processes can significantly improve resilience when a supplier experiences a cyber incident.
Impact on Next-Generation IT Security
Organisations are increasingly prioritising:
- Mapping critical suppliers and third-party dependencies.
- Assessing vendor cybersecurity capabilities before engagement.
- Strengthening security requirements within supplier contracts.
- Monitoring third-party access to critical environments.
- Establishing joint incident response and communication procedures.
At Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026, industry experts will explore practical approaches to reducing supply chain vulnerabilities while strengthening collaboration and operational continuity across increasingly interconnected ecosystems.
Building Resilience and Continuity for High-Stakes Environments
Cybersecurity within critical infrastructure is not solely about preventing attacks. Organisations must also be prepared to continue operating when preventive controls fail and critical systems are compromised.
High-impact incidents can disrupt production, interrupt essential services, affect safety, damage business operations, and create significant financial and reputational consequences. In these circumstances, the ability to respond quickly and maintain essential functions can be just as important as preventing the original intrusion.
Operational resilience requires organisations to understand their most important services and processes, establish realistic recovery priorities, maintain appropriate backup and recovery capabilities, and regularly test response plans. It also requires close coordination between cybersecurity, operational, communications, executive, and crisis-management teams.
Testing these capabilities under realistic conditions can reveal weaknesses that may not be visible during routine operations. Exercises and simulations allow organisations to understand how teams respond under pressure and identify opportunities to improve decision-making, communication, recovery, and continuity.
Impact on Next-Generation IT Security
Organisations are strengthening operational resilience by:
- Identifying critical business and operational services.
- Developing and regularly testing incident response plans.
- Establishing recovery priorities for critical systems.
- Maintaining resilient backup and recovery capabilities.
- Conducting realistic cyber exercises and crisis simulations.
Experts at Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026 will discuss how organisations can prepare for high-impact cyber incidents while maintaining essential services and reducing the operational consequences of disruption.
Learning from Real-World Critical Infrastructure Incidents
Previous cyber incidents affecting critical infrastructure have demonstrated how quickly a seemingly isolated security weakness can develop into a major operational challenge. These incidents provide valuable lessons about the importance of visibility, preparation, communication, segmentation, supplier management, and rapid response.
Understanding what went wrong during previous attacks can help organisations identify weaknesses in their own security strategies. Lessons from real-world incidents can also demonstrate the importance of recognising early warning signs, understanding interconnected dependencies, and ensuring that security and operational teams are prepared to make decisions during periods of uncertainty.
Incident analysis should therefore go beyond identifying the technical cause of an attack. Organisations must also examine how vulnerabilities developed, how attackers moved through connected environments, how decisions were made during the response, and where communication or recovery processes could be improved.
Turning these lessons into practical improvements can help organisations develop more resilient security strategies and avoid repeating common mistakes.
Impact on Next-Generation IT Security
Organisations are increasingly using real-world incidents to:
- Identify weaknesses in existing security and response strategies.
- Improve understanding of attack paths across connected environments.
- Strengthen communication between technical and operational teams.
- Refine incident response and recovery procedures.
- Translate lessons learned into measurable resilience improvements.
Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026 will provide a platform for experts to share practical lessons from critical infrastructure incidents and examine how organisations can apply these experiences to strengthen preparedness and resilience.
Integrating Security Across the Entire Operational Ecosystem
Securing critical systems requires more than protecting individual technologies. Modern operational environments depend on complex relationships between people, processes, technology, suppliers, facilities, and external services. A weakness in any part of this ecosystem can potentially affect the resilience of the wider organisation.
Organisations must therefore take an integrated approach to security that connects cybersecurity with enterprise risk management, operational resilience, procurement, engineering, business continuity, and executive decision-making.
This approach also requires security teams to work more closely with operational stakeholders. Cybersecurity decisions can have direct consequences for production, safety, availability, and service delivery, making collaboration between technical and operational functions essential.
By embedding security considerations throughout the operational life cycle, organisations can improve their ability to identify risks early, prioritise investments effectively, and respond to threats without unnecessarily disrupting essential services.
Impact on Next-Generation IT Security
Organisations are strengthening ecosystem-wide security by:
- Integrating cybersecurity into operational risk management.
- Connecting IT, OT, engineering, and security teams.
- Including security requirements throughout procurement processes.
- Mapping dependencies across technology and supplier ecosystems.
- Embedding resilience into system design and operational planning.
At Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026, experts will explore how organisations can move towards a more integrated security model that protects critical systems while supporting operational performance and long-term resilience.
Looking Ahead
Critical infrastructure will continue to evolve as organisations adopt connected technologies, cloud services, automation, remote operations, and increasingly digital supply chains. While these developments can improve efficiency and innovation, they also create new dependencies and introduce additional cybersecurity considerations.
Organisations that invest in comprehensive visibility, strong supplier governance, resilient architectures, tested response capabilities, and cross-functional collaboration will be better positioned to withstand cyber threats while maintaining essential operations.
The future of critical infrastructure security will depend not only on preventing attacks, but also on ensuring that organisations can detect threats early, respond decisively, recover effectively, and continue delivering essential services under pressure.
As one of the core presentation areas at Next IT Security | Stockholm 2026, The Playbook for Securing Critical Systems will provide attendees with valuable insights into how organisations can strengthen operational security, manage complex supply chain risks, learn from real-world incidents, and build resilient critical systems capable of withstanding an increasingly challenging cyber threat landscape.
