CVSS Gives You a Score.
Attackers Give You a Deadline.
In OT environments, a CVE scored 5.3 can be more operationally dangerous than one scored 9.8. ShiftSix replaces CVSS-first thinking with adversary-first prioritization — anchored to active threat actor campaigns, CISA KEV, and real exploitability in your specific environment.
CVSS Measures Severity. OT Requires Context.
CVSS scores vulnerabilities in isolation. OT risk depends on reachability, exploitability in the wild, and operational impact — context that CVSS cannot provide.
The CVSS-First Approach (Broken in OT)
Prioritizing by Vulnerability Score Alone
Treats a CVSS 9.8 on an air-gapped historian the same as one on an internet-exposed PLC
Ignores whether the vulnerability has ever been exploited in the wild
No context for OT environment constraints — patching may require 12-month outage windows
Generates thousands of "critical" findings that overwhelm already-thin OT security teams
Misses low-CVSS vulnerabilities actively exploited by ICS-specific threat actors
ShiftSix Threat-Informed Prioritization
Prioritizing by Adversary-Verified Exploitability
External reachability first — if an adversary can’t reach it from the internet, it’s deprioritized
CISA KEV correlation — actively exploited vulnerabilities take priority over theoretical risk
MITRE ATT&CK for ICS technique mapping gives defenders adversary-aligned context
OT-aware severity: protocol access type, authentication state, and safety impact weighted
Maps directly to NERC CIP, IEC 62443, and NIST CSF 2.0 remediation controls
What Actually Gets Exploited in OT Environments
CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog is the closest thing to a real-world attacker priority list. ShiftSix correlates every discovered asset against 95+ ICS-specific KEV entries — not theoretical CVEs.
1,529+
Total entries in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (as of early 2026)
<15
ICS/OT device CVEs included in KEV — PLCs, RTUs, and SCADA platforms are virtually absent from the catalog
100%
of ShiftSix findings correlated against KEV, ICS-CERT advisories, and active threat campaigns — closing the OT intelligence gap
Sample Platform Output — ShiftSix Correlates These Continuously Against Your Exposure Surface
KEV = In CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog · ICS-CERT = CISA ICS advisory issued (not in KEV)
From Threat Intelligence to Prioritized Action
ShiftSix doesn’t just list exposures — it correlates your exposure surface against documented threat actor campaigns to show which findings an adversary would prioritize today. Here’s how that works against two real-world threat scenarios.
ADVERSARY INPUT
Industrial Ransomware
Qilin, Play, Akira, and 116+ other groups — responsible for 3,300 attacks on industrial organizations in 2025
Initial Access Vectors
Exposed Fortinet FortiOS management interface (CVE-2022-40684), SonicWall SSLVPN (CVE-2024-40766), RDP endpoints, Citrix ADC gateways
Impact Pattern
IT compromise → lateral movement to OT → operational disruption or shutdown. Of Dragos’ industrial ransomware incident responses, 75% caused partial or complete OT shutdown. 62% of manufacturing orgs pay the ransom.
ADVERSARY INPUT
VOLT TYPHOON
China-nexus threat actor — also tracked as VOLTZITE (Dragos), Bronze Silhouette (Secureworks)
Target Sectors
Electric utilities, water & wastewater, telecommunications, transportation, oil & gas
Documented Techniques
Remote system discovery, remote service exploitation, standard protocol abuse, and lateral movement through living-off-the-land methods — all mapped to MITRE ATT&CK for ICS.
ShiftSix Prioritization Output
ShiftSix correlates your discovered exposures against both threat profiles — ransomware initial access patterns targeting your exposed VPNs and edge devices, and VOLT TYPHOON’s documented targeting of SCADA interfaces and management protocols. Exposures matching active campaigns are elevated to the top of your remediation queue with adversary-specific context.
What This Replaces
Without threat-informed prioritization, an exposed Fortinet appliance is just another finding scored by CVSS. With ShiftSix, it’s flagged as a confirmed ransomware initial access vector actively exploited by multiple groups targeting your sector — with CISA KEV status, compliance mapping, and remediation guidance attached.
NERC CIP Alignment
Both ransomware initial access patterns and VOLT TYPHOON activity align with NERC CIP-015 (INSM) requirements — FERC-approved in 2025 with compliance deadlines beginning October 2028 for high/medium-impact systems. ShiftSix’s external exposure data provides the complementary outside-in view.
Every Closed Exposure Advances Compliance
ShiftSix maps every finding and remediation action to the regulatory frameworks OT operators are accountable to — so security work and audit readiness compound together.
NERC CIP-015 (INSM)
Every threat-informed prioritization decision generates documentation mapping directly to CIP-015 internal network security monitoring requirements — demonstrating that external exposure management complements your INSM implementation.
Approved 2025 · Compliance 2028IEC 62443-2-1 / 3-3
Prioritized findings map to IEC 62443 security levels and zone boundaries — showing auditors which exposures violate zone integrity and how remediation restores compliance posture.
Zone & ConduitNIST CSF 2.0
Threat-informed prioritization directly addresses ID.RA (Risk Assessment) by replacing CVSS-only scoring with adversary-verified exploitability — producing risk assessments anchored to real-world threat activity.
ID.RA · GV.RMMITRE ATT&CK for ICS
Every prioritized finding carries ATT&CK for ICS technique context — enabling cross-team communication between IT SOC and OT operations using a shared adversary language.
TTP MappingNIS2 Directive
Threat-informed prioritization supports Article 21 requirements for risk-based security measures — providing documented evidence that remediation priorities reflect actual threat landscape conditions.
Article 21ICS-CERT Advisories
Active ICS-CERT advisories are continuously cross-referenced against your discovered assets — when a new advisory drops, affected exposures in your environment are automatically re-prioritized.
Continuous MatchStop Prioritizing What CVSS Says.
Start Closing What Attackers Would Use.
ShiftSix delivers adversary-informed exposure priorities correlated to CISA KEV, active ransomware campaigns, nation-state threat actor TTPs, and MITRE ATT&CK for ICS — mapped to the compliance frameworks your organization is accountable to.
See how ShiftSix maps your external OT attack surface and correlates exposed protocols to ICS malware families.