The Worst ICS OT Love Story Ever Told
Mike Holcomb
DEF CON 33 (backfill) · Day 1 · Main Stage
Mike Holcomb's DEF CON talk, "The Worst ICS OT Love Story Ever Told," delves into the alarming state of cybersecurity within Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) environments. The presentation argues that a pervasive lack of fundamental security practices, awareness, and resources has created a critical vulnerability, making it "too easy" for attackers—ranging from low-skill activists to sophisticated state-sponsored groups—to compromise essential infrastructure. Holcomb's ironic "love story" title underscores the tragic reality of how negligence and convenience have inadvertently fostered an environment ripe for exploitation, leading to potentially devastating real-world impacts.
AI review
Holcomb is a credible practitioner delivering a well-structured OT awareness talk with real data and a reproducible-in-minutes PoC that lands the 'low barrier to entry' point cleanly. The Dragos stat stack, the Frosty Goop recreation, and the Sandworm-SIS-explosion thread are the genuine highlights, but this is fundamentally an education and awareness session — not novel research — and it lands squarely in 'solid conference filler' territory rather than anything that advances the field.