Closing the OT Security Gap: Quest & Crytica Target Sub-Minute Breaches

ROSEVILLE, CA – November 25, 2025 – In a significant move to counter the accelerating speed of cyberattacks against critical infrastructure, global technology firm Quest Technology Management has forged a strategic partnership with Crytica Security. The collaboration aims to deploy a new generation of defense specifically designed for the vulnerable and often-overlooked domains of Operational Technology (OT) and the Internet of Things (IoT), where attackers now operate on timelines measured in minutes, not days.

The alliance integrates Crytica’s patented, lightweight detection technology into Quest’s managed security portfolio, creating a formidable new offering for industries whose operations depend on the integrity of industrial control systems and connected devices. For investors and executives in sectors from healthcare to manufacturing, this partnership signals a crucial shift in the market toward proactive, specialized defense for the digital-physical frontier.

The New Velocity of Risk: A Battlefield Measured in Seconds

The strategic rationale behind the Quest-Crytica partnership is grounded in alarming industry data. The cyber threat landscape has evolved from a slow-moving siege to a high-speed blitz. According to recent threat intelligence from firms like CrowdStrike, the median “breakout time”—the time it takes for an attacker to move from an initial compromise to other systems on the network—has plummeted to just 62 minutes. Some sophisticated actors achieve this lateral movement in under three minutes.

This velocity is especially perilous in OT environments, where a digital intrusion can rapidly trigger a physical-world crisis, such as halting a manufacturing line, destabilizing a power grid, or compromising patient monitoring systems in a hospital. While attackers move faster, their presence can linger undetected for extended periods. Mandiant's latest M-Trends report places the global median dwell time at 10 days, an eternity when an adversary needs only minutes to escalate their attack.

The financial stakes are equally stark. IBM's 2024 data breach report pegs the average cost of a breach at a record $4.88 million. For critical infrastructure operators, that figure climbs to over $5 million. This partnership directly targets this intersection of speed and cost, aiming to shrink detection time from days or hours to mere seconds, thereby neutralizing threats before they can inflict operational or financial devastation.

Bridging the IT/OT Security Chasm

For decades, OT systems—the complex web of hardware and software that monitors and controls industrial processes—were largely isolated from corporate IT networks, a concept known as the “air gap.” However, the drive for efficiency, remote monitoring, and data analytics has led to widespread IT/OT convergence, effectively dissolving this protective barrier and creating a vast new attack surface.

Securing this converged environment presents unique challenges that traditional IT security tools are ill-equipped to handle. OT devices, such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and remote sensors, often run on legacy operating systems, cannot be easily patched, and possess minimal processing power and memory. Deploying a standard security agent, which can consume hundreds of megabytes of resources, is simply not feasible on these resource-constrained systems. This has created a dangerous security chasm where the most critical operational assets are often the least protected.

This is the gap Quest and Crytica aim to close. Their joint solution is built on the premise that OT/IoT environments require a fundamentally different approach—one that is lightweight, non-disruptive, and designed with the unique constraints and high-availability demands of operational systems in mind.

A Lightweight Solution for a Heavyweight Problem

At the core of the partnership is Crytica Security’s innovative Rapid Detection & Alert (RDA) technology. Its most significant differentiator is its incredibly small footprint. "Crytica's unique and patented solution fits beautifully into the challenging environments typical of operational technology systems used by utilities around the world," said C. Kerry Nemovicher, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Crytica Security. "Using a probe with a footprint of around 100 kilobytes—rather than megabytes—our technology excels at continuously detecting abnormal system activity."

This ultra-lightweight design allows the technology to be embedded directly onto a vast array of OT and IoT devices without impacting their performance. Furthermore, Crytica’s solution is built on a “multi-mesh, survivable” architecture. This means it creates a distributed network of collaborating sensors. If one probe is compromised or disabled by an attacker, the others continue to operate, ensuring the security fabric remains resilient and intact. This approach provides comprehensive and continuous monitoring across dispersed assets, from a factory floor to a remote pipeline station.

Unlike traditional Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools that rely on known signatures or complex behavioral analysis requiring significant computing power, Crytica’s RDA focuses on identifying anomalous system activity at a fundamental level, enabling near-instantaneous alerts when a device deviates from its expected operational baseline.

From Technology to Managed Defense: The Market Impact

Groundbreaking technology alone is not enough; it must be effectively deployed and managed. This is where Quest Technology Management’s role becomes pivotal. By bundling Crytica’s RDA into its managed security services, Quest translates a sophisticated technology into an accessible and actionable defense for its clients.

Many organizations, particularly in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, lack dedicated in-house cybersecurity teams with OT-specific expertise. The managed service model removes this barrier, providing 24/7 monitoring, threat analysis, and incident response from Quest’s security operations center. "Together with Crytica, we're closing the IoT gap, bringing never-before-seen speed to threat detection and response, so our customers stay resilient and ahead of what's next," explained Adam Burke, Vice President of Sales and Partnerships at Quest. "The collaboration delivers innovation where it's most needed, and together, Quest and Crytica are setting a new standard for edge cybersecurity and business continuity."

This go-to-market strategy positions the partnership strongly against competitors like Claroty, Nozomi Networks, and Dragos. While these firms offer powerful OT security platforms, the Quest-Crytica offering differentiates itself by combining a uniquely lightweight technology with a comprehensive managed service wrapper, appealing directly to organizations seeking a turnkey solution for a complex problem.

The Economic and Operational Imperative

For business leaders, CISOs, and boards of directors, the decision to invest in advanced OT security is increasingly becoming an economic and operational imperative. The potential cost of a breach extends far beyond the initial financial impact. For a manufacturing plant, an hour of downtime can translate into millions in lost revenue. For a utility, a service disruption can have cascading effects on an entire region. In healthcare, a compromised medical IoT device can put patient lives at risk.

By providing a defense capable of thwarting sub-minute breaches, the Quest-Crytica solution directly protects an organization's core value-generating operations. It shifts the security posture from reactive recovery to proactive resilience, minimizing the risk of costly downtime and reputational damage. This partnership represents a critical step in securing the foundational infrastructure of modern industry, providing a much-needed defense for the interconnected devices that now power our world.