AKMSecure has joined the Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition as its newest member, adding to a growing and diverse group of cybersecurity stakeholders committed to strengthening the security of OT (operational technology) environments. As threats to critical infrastructure continue to evolve, the coalition is further strengthened by organizations like AKMSecure, which bring additional expertise and perspective to the shared challenge of securing OT systems.
AKMSecure said it brings to critical infrastructure and OT environments a simple, safe, and secure cryptographic solution designed to eliminate key compromise breaches by automating key management and replacing traditional PKI.
“The key is Autonomous Key Management (AKM), a zero trust, quantum-secure framework that performs at sub-millisecond speeds, is always available, works on any device and is air-gapped and DDIL resilient,” according to a Tuesday OTCC statement. “These are capabilities OT operators have needed for a long time.”
AKMSecure said its decision to join a coalition that includes other cybersecurity providers, including potential competitors, reflects the reality that rigorous OT security depends on industry-wide collaboration rather than isolated solutions. The company expects participation in the OT Cyber Coalition to help advance shared best practices, influence policy, and ensure organizations have access to interoperable tools that protect critical assets, emphasizing that collective effort strengthens overall security outcomes.
AKMSecure identified one of the most pressing challenges in OT environments and endpoint security as the lack of encryption in many OT environments, driven by the need for extremely high availability that traditional public key infrastructure cannot support. The company said its approach delivers encryption without downtime through autonomous security, where every communication frame verifies identity, ensures device integrity, and guarantees data authenticity before acceptance. This model, it added, embeds zero trust from the outset rather than relying on detection and response after compromise.
The company said its team has addressed what it views as a longstanding limitation in cybersecurity by embedding zero trust into a quantum-secure foundation without relying on legacy public key infrastructure. AKMSecure noted that its founding team has experience working with organizations such as GDIT, Alstom Rail, Airbus, and Boeing, and has contributed to international cybersecurity standards including IEC 62443 and CENELEC TS-50701.
Looking at policy priorities, AKMSecure said the federal government should accelerate recognition and adoption of post-PKI cryptographic frameworks that deliver quantum security, zero-downtime availability, and reduced reliance on human intervention, particularly for critical infrastructure. It also called for harmonized guidance across agencies aligned with CNSA 2.0, NIST, and IEC 62443 to reduce complexity, speed deployment, and lower costs.
For federal agencies, the company emphasized the importance of auditing legacy PKI dependencies and piloting autonomous alternatives that remove manual overhead and centralized points of failure. It added that agencies can lead by example by demonstrating how decentralized, self-healing key management can secure air-gapped and edge systems while maintaining compliance and reducing long-term costs, signaling a broader shift beyond traditional PKI.
In February, VulnCheck joined the coalition as its newest member, expanding efforts to strengthen the cybersecurity of OT environments and protect critical infrastructure as threats targeting industrial control systems and network-edge devices continue to increase.
