AI-driven reconnaissance in Mexico
The Mexican campaign against nine government organizations between December 2025 and February 2026 demonstrates how commercial AI models can allow an attacker with no prior industrial expertise to autonomously identify and pursue access to critical infrastructure control systems. An unidentified actor used Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 to target the water utility Servicios de Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey (SADM). This campaign resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of citizen records from institutions such as Mexico’s Federal Tax Authority. Claude developed a 17,000-line Python framework called "BACKUPOSINT v9.0 APEX PREDATOR" to handle reconnaissance and exploitation. This framework contained 49 modules for tasks like credential harvesting and privilege escalation. GPT-4.1 processed the collected data into structured intelligence. The attacker used Claude to map the internal network and identify a server hosting a vNode industrial gateway. Claude analyzed the single-password authentication interface and generated credential lists to perform automated password spraying. This intelligence surge relies on the expertise of the Dragos intelligence team. This team, led by CEO Robert Lee and CTO Jon Lavender, uses the Dragos Intelligence Fabric to connect asset knowledge with frontline threat data. Robert Lee, a former National Security Agency analyst, helps companies manage the risks found on the physics side of the house. The campaign also targeted the National Electoral Institute. Claude identified the significance of the industrial gateway and analyzed its authentication interface. The attempt to breach the OT environment through password spraying failed, which shows that single-password authentication is an insufficient defense.
Market shifts and regulatory pressure
The OT security market shows massive ownership shifts in 2026. Accenture took a majority stake in Dragos in September 2026 as part of a $4.175 billion deal that included the acquisition of runZero and NetRise. This follows Claroty’s $400 million purchase of Medigate in 2022, which expanded its reach into medical IoT. Claroty also raised $150 million in January 2026 to fund its expansion. Mitsubishi Electric completed its purchase of Nozomi Networks in January 2026 for approximately $883 million. These investments follow the regulatory pressure from NERC CIP for the electric sector and the NIS2 directive in Europe. Mordor Intelligence valued the OT security market at $22.15 billion in 2025 and expects it to reach $25.19 billion in 2026. The TSA security directives for pipelines and rail force operators to implement mandatory cybersecurity risk management. The Dragos 2025 OT Security Financial Risk report, produced with Marsh McLennan, estimates that OT-related incidents represent $31.1 billion of modeled global financial risk in a typical year. This report also found that in a severe but plausible scenario, global OT cyber losses could reach $329.5 billion.
Decision factors for industrial sites
Dragos is the best choice for facilities that manage a high variety of industrial protocols. The Dragos Platform provides asset inventory and threat detection, and it supports over 600 protocols, which helps defenders in plants that use legacy equipment from many different vendors. Claroty is the best choice for organizations that need broad coverage across cyber-physical systems, including healthcare and enterprise IoT. Claroty’s platform includes xDome and CTD to manage diverse assets. Dragos uses a "Now, Next, Never" vulnerability management model to prioritize the small percentage of vulnerabilities that require immediate action. You already know that OT security requires visibility.
| Capability | Claroty | Dragos | Nozomi Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Hybrid and SaaS | Cloud, Hybrid, or On-prem | Sensor and Cloud |
| Market Focus | Cyber-Physical Systems | OT-Native | Scale and Cloud |
| Ownership | Independent | Accenture | Mitsubishi Electric |
The industry is seeing a shift where attackers target the programmable logic controller rather than the laptop. A joint advisory from CISA, the FBI, and the NSA in 2026 confirmed that Iranian-linked actors compromised more than 75 core automation devices at U.S. facilities. This threat to the physical environment drives the demand for visibility. Will the integration of AI into offensive tools eventually overcome the physical security of these isolated control systems?
