The Edge Is Now the Front Line in the Cybersecurity Wars

For cybercriminals, it’s open season on edge devices that are at the far reaches of the network or embedded into the IT/OT infrastructure. Organizations need a new approach to security and lifecycle management.

By: Dave Dimlich
President of SD3IT

It’s no secret why edge devices have quickly become a favorite target of cybercriminals, nation-state adversaries and other malicious actors: Edge devices are often unprotected and/or unsupported. And they are everywhere.

They sit in retail stores, hospitals, factories, transportation systems, military installations and critical infrastructure. They include self-service kiosks, IoT sensors, wearable devices, industrial controllers, smart cameras, routers, firewalls and VPN gateways. Increasingly, they process data locally, make decisions in real time and serve as the connection point between operational environments and cloud-based systems.

Particularly when it comes to IT infrastructure, they are, as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says, “the load-bearing pillars of a network.” But regardless of what type of edge device they are, they exist at the tip of highly distributed networks or are embedded within network infrastructure, and they have often been overlooked in terms of security.

Not anymore. The edge has become the new front line in the cybersecurity wars.

Threat actors, whether nation-state operators or criminal gangs out for money, increasingly target edge devices because they often provide direct access to valuable networks while receiving far less attention than traditional endpoints. Many edge devices cannot support endpoint detection and response tools. Logging capabilities are often limited. Patching frequently requires downtime that organizations are reluctant to schedule.

In short, attackers have identified the edge as a blind spot in organizations’ cybersecurity fortifications.

Researchers have documented a significant increase in attacks against edge infrastructure, including firewalls, VPN gateways and network appliances—and, increasingly, AI infrastructure. Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that exploits of edge device vulnerabilities grew nearly eight-fold last year. Starting out at just 3%, they now comprise 22% of all vulnerability-exploiting attacks.

This is not a short-term trend that is likely to spike and then die down, either. Security experts view it as a long-term strategic shift. Threat actors recognize that compromising a single edge device can provide access to credentials and network traffic, enabling ransomware attacks, data exfiltration or network disruption.

And attackers are increasingly making use of artificial intelligence themselves, using AI tools to accelerate vulnerability discovery, automate reconnaissance and shorten the time between vulnerability disclosure and active exploitation.

The Hidden Risks of Technology Debt

AI may be playing a significant role in the shift toward attacks on edge devices, but one of the biggest contributors to edge security risk isn’t anything advanced or sophisticated. Just the opposite, in fact. In many cases, the problem is old equipment.

Across government and industry, organizations continue to rely on routers, firewalls, gateways and other edge devices long after vendors have stopped supporting them. The same is true for a lot of embedded OT and IoT devices. These end-of-support (EOS) systems no longer receive security updates, making them increasingly vulnerable to known exploits.

Recent research by VulnCheck found that 42.5% of vulnerabilities exploited in 2025 affected devices that are either EOS or “likely” at the end of their lifecycles, with additional vulnerabilities cropping up with devices that may be still supported but have already passed their end-of-sale dates.

Federal cybersecurity leaders have become concerned enough that CISA recently issued Binding Operational Directive 26-02, requiring federal civilian agencies to identify, inventory and ultimately remove unsupported edge devices from their networks. The directive, issued Feb. 5, gave agencies 90 days to identify and remediate vulnerabilities and set deadlines over the next 24 months to inventory, report and decommission vulnerable devices connected to federal networks, replacing those devices with ones that vendors still support.

Although the directive applies specifically to civilian agencies, the lesson extends far beyond government, particularly since federal edicts on cybersecurity often become standard for business and industry.

Securing the Edge Requires a New Mindset

Every organization should view lifecycle management as a security function, not simply an IT procurement issue. It should be part of a comprehensive strategy designed to secure the edge.

Organizations can begin with basic cyber hygiene:

Maintain supported systems: The priority is ensuring that edge devices run vendor-supported hardware and software. Devices that no longer receive updates become liabilities.

Strengthen authentication: Identity management has become essential to cybersecurity overall. With edge devices, that includes machine identities, which have grown prolifically and currently outnumber human identities on networks by about 80-to-1. Strong authentication, including phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) where appropriate, can significantly reduce risk. And default credentials should never exist in production environments.

Reduce the attack surface: Many edge devices ship with services enabled that organizations never use. Disabling unnecessary protocols and remote management capabilities removes potential entry points.

Segment the network: Compromising an edge device should not provide unrestricted access to critical systems. Network segmentation and zero trust principles help limit lateral movement if a device is compromised.

Improve visibility: Security teams cannot defend what they cannot see. Centralized logging, configuration monitoring and anomaly detection provide critical visibility into edge activity. None of these measures are particularly glamorous. All of them work.

Bring zero trust to the edge: One of the most important developments in edge security is the extension of zero trust principles throughout the IT environment.

Once upon a time, IT leaders may have been able to assume that devices inside a network could be trusted, but those days are long gone. With thousands, and often millions, of connected devices communicating automatically with one another, machine-to-machine communications, like the number of identities, now vastly outnumber human-generated interactions. The same zero trust focus on continuously authenticating human users must be applied to machine identities. This is especially important in OT environments where industrial controllers, sensors, robotic systems and other mission-critical assets must communicate securely without introducing unacceptable latency or operational disruption.

Organizations such as SD3IT partner Corsha are helping enterprises establish machine identities that allow devices, applications and services to verify one another before exchanging data. This approach aligns closely with zero trust principles while accommodating the unique requirements of operational environments.

The industry is also recognizing that security controls need to catch up to edge devices, which often process data and execute transactions on the spot, without communicating back to a central server. Security must move closer to where data and applications operate.

For example, Cisco’s Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access architecture are designed to embed security directly into distributed environments, extending identity-based access controls and segmentation capabilities across users, devices, applications and IoT deployments.

For organizations managing increasingly distributed environments, that approach offers a path toward improved visibility, stronger access control and greater operational resilience.

The Edge Isn’t the Endpoint, It’s the Beginning

The edge is no longer a secondary consideration—it has become a strategic security domain. It’s where business operations happen, where data is generated and where autonomous systems make decisions. And increasingly, it is where adversaries begin their attacks.

At SD3IT, we’ve seen firsthand how successful organizations approach these challenges, working with partners to integrate zero trust practices, implementing many of the best practices recommended for protecting the edge. That includes strong identity controls—including for machine identities—segmenting networks and providing continuous visibility across increasingly distributed environments.

In today’s complex networking environments, organizations need to be sure to build security into the architecture from the beginning. Because the edge isn’t the edge anymore. It’s the front line.

About SD3IT

SD3IT delivers mission-focused technology integration, cybersecurity, zero trust architecture, operational technology security and digital transformation solutions for federal, defense and commercial organizations. We help clients modernize infrastructure, secure critical systems and integrate emerging technologies to achieve resilient, mission-ready operations.