At the Operational Edge: From Implicit Trust to Zero Trust
The operational edge is like a mirror. It changes depending upon who’s looking at it. The “edge” for a data center located in an “edge metro” might be vast air-conditioned buildings, with racks of servers lined up in neat and tidy rows, situated along busy highways. For a power company, the edge might be a fenced-in substation located in the middle of a subdivision. Water treatment plants at the edge line rivers and, unlike all of the above, the operational edge for oil and gas producers could be floating vessels in the ocean or span hundreds of remote, desert miles. For industrial operations, the edge may be production facilities miles or oceans apart. We sat down with FreeWave’s CEO and founder Steve Wulchin to explore the operational edge through the lens of someone who has contributed to its evolution. A no-nonsense, culture-driven leader, Wulchin’s worldview was shaped by his diverse, Latin America upbringing. With an eye to the open frontier, he helped introduce long-range connectivity in remote places more than 30 years ago. FreeWave’s 900 MHz radios became an industry favorite standard for SCADA systems and industrial networks with no easy access to Wi-Fi. Over a million devices are in use today. Today, Wulchin and his team are taking a new view of the operational edge. “We define the edge as the very edge of the network,” he explains. “It’s remote and, by definition, you have skinny pipes, typically solar powered, so power consumption is a consideration, and it is exposed to extreme environmental conditions.” The challenge, he says, is that the edge has become more connected, triggering a “recent awareness” about the vulnerability of industrial infrastructure. That’s why he and FreeWave’s team of engineers have spent the last year innovating what they call Operational Zero Trust (OZT). “Operational Zero Trust is about applying zero trust to the industrial world – at the geographic and physical edge. We’ve been active in all these places for over 30 years,” Wulchin says. He understands why the edge has often been an afterthought for industrial organizations. IT and OT have long had different goals. Industrial Control Systems (ICS) focused on production, automation, uptime, and worker safety. It came with implicit trust. In contrast, corporate IT was about protecting the enterprise through segmentation so that a breach could not move laterally across the enterprise. OT systems were not built this way. Today, given IT/OT convergence, Wulchin says that zero trust, with its “never trust, always verify” approach, is critical for protecting industrial infrastructure. For CEOs and boards, Operational Zero Trust is a strategic business advantage that delivers supply chain resilience, network security, and an offensive strategy as opposed to a defensive one. Perimeter Security in OT Environments is Outdated and That’s a Strategic Risk“There’s a growing awareness that when you deploy things like IIoT (industrial internet of things) devices and you don’t secure them and they’re connected to the network, then you’ve just introduced a whole new attack surface,” Wulchin says, adding, “Your network is only as strong as your weakest link. These devices offer a vulnerability all the way to the heart of your network.” Case in point: in FreeWave’s recent conversation with Dr. Chase Cunningham, the author and expert known as Dr. Zero Trust instantly brought up 206 fuel tank control systems talking to the internet in real time. Each was a path to that company’s network. Any one company’s vulnerability can even impact the United States’s national security. According to the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency website, there are 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose “assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or distraction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety . . .” OT environments and the larger world are inextricably linked. Technology advancement comes with two trajectories: progress and problems. You may recall the connectivity surge of the 1990s when the World Wide Web became the “World Wide Wait.” More connected devices caused latency issues. Broadband solved the problem of the dial-up era – and those connected devices? They continued to increase exponentially in OT environments as IIoT devices like sensors and gateways, OT and IT systems, PLCs, smart equipment, and the cloud got added to what once were self-contained legacy networks. The traditional security approach required patches: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and tunneling to protect the growing attack surface. This perimeter-based security led to exposed visible IP addresses, open ports, tunnels, and gateways that answered back when scanned. In OT environments, access grew faster than security. That led FreeWave to explore the applicability of Operational Zero Trust. At first, the team’s goal was to create ironclad security in a redesigned cellular gateway product called FreeWave Elements ES1000™. The gateway was powered by zero trust. “Out of the development process, we discovered we could secure that device and offer broader applications,” said Wulchin. That “broader application” turned out to be the FreeWave Zentry™ solution introduced in 2025. The zero-trust-based solution protects critical industrial assets by design. The security software acts as a security “fabric” overlaid onto OT systems, without ripping and replacing equipment. It makes the network virtually invisible. As Wulchin says, “When it comes to operational technology, the perimeter is constantly moving.” Since you cannot exploit what you cannot see, the Zentry solution repositions OT security from defensive to offensive strategy. The Danger of Operational ApathyIn conversations with customers, Wulchin says that having a false sense of security is the biggest risk of all. “The world is not getting safer from a cybersecurity standpoint with the advent of AI and where that could take us. To a large degree, FreeWave’s tech is highly disruptive and very different from anything being used to protect OT environments right now. It’s more secure, easier to manage, easier to deploy. It’s just a completely different approach.” Wulchin says the Zentry solution protects the network through a variety of means, protocols, and attributes, while
FreeWave’s Steve Wulchin Returns as CEO
On January 9, 2023, Steve Wulchin returned as CEO of FreeWave Technologies. Steve served as the company’s CEO from founding — as one of its co-founders —until 2014. An experienced business leader, Wulchin will succeed Kirk Byles and assume responsibilities immediately. Mr. Byles has left the company to pursue other opportunities. As the chairman, co-founder, and former CEO of FreeWave, Steve has been intimately involved since its inception three decades ago. Steve’s vision has always been to create a great company with great products and amazing people who are driven to provide superior solutions and service to our customers. “Steve’s leadership will propel FreeWave forward into the vision set for its IoT-enabled success and next phase of growth.” said Bob Dimicco, FreeWave board member. Wulchin holds an MBA from the University of Texas and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia. His passion for both the wireless industry and FreeWave’s evolution as an intelligent edge solutions provider played a pivotal role in the company’s success to date. “FreeWave is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the cloud-enabled data opportunities available in the IoT space.” said Nazila Alasti, board member. “With Steve at the helm I’m excited to see what the team can do to bring that vision to fruition.”