NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 — Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security

What the authority record establishes

NIST describes OT topologies, threats, vulnerabilities, safeguards, and risk-management considerations while recognizing performance, reliability, and safety requirements.

Guidance, not a regulation by itself

The exact official title, issuing body, jurisdiction, version or application record, and linked source define the scope of this page. Readers should not transfer the authority's status to a commercial product or infer transaction-, patient-, system-, site-, or organization-specific applicability from this summary.

Why it matters to this market

Provider and architecture claims can be tested against a mature OT-specific control context without pretending the guide certifies a product or environment.

Affected operating stages

• Govern
• Identify
• Protect
• Detect
• Respond
• Recover

Capabilities to examine

Passive OT Asset Discovery And Inventory

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for passive OT asset discovery and inventory.

Active OT-Safe Discovery And Query Governance

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for active OT-safe discovery and query governance.

Topology, Communication, And Dependency Mapping

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for topology, communication, and dependency mapping.

Asset Criticality And Operational Context

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for asset criticality and operational context.

Vulnerability And Exposure Correlation

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for vulnerability and exposure correlation.

Configuration, Baseline, And Change Monitoring

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for configuration, baseline, and change monitoring.

Anomaly And Behavioral Detection

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for anomaly and behavioral detection.

Incident Response And Recovery Support

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for incident response and recovery support.

Secure Remote Access And Vendor Session Control

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for secure remote access and vendor session control.

Endpoint Allowlisting And Malware Prevention

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for endpoint allowlisting and malware prevention.

Compliance Mapping And Control Evidence

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for compliance mapping and control evidence.

Offline And Air-Gapped Environment Support

Ask how the system or service identifies the controlling source and version, applies customer-specific interpretation, handles exceptions, preserves human judgment, and retains evidence for offline and air-gapped environment support.

Affected buyer audiences

• asset owners
• OT security leaders
• control engineers
• risk and architecture teams

Implementation questions

• Which entities, products, populations, transactions, systems, sites, or jurisdictions are actually within scope?
• What is binding, what is guidance, and what is a technical or consensus standard?
• Which publication, adoption, effective, application, transition, and enforcement dates differ?
• Who owns legal, clinical, quality, regulatory, policy, or operational interpretation?
• How will a source revision affect open work and historical decisions?

Interpretation boundary

NIST guidance supports risk management. It does not establish organization-specific compliance, a safe configuration, or product fitness.