Dr. Kirsty Perrett is a Senior Director Analyst focused on the cybersecurity risk and resilience of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control System (ICS) environments. Her Business & Technology Insights work helps security and risk leaders understand, manage and improve resilience across complex industrial and safety-critical environments.
Her expertise spans CPS/OT/ICS security and resilience, critical infrastructure protection, exposure risk management, forensic readiness, secure remote access and governance. Her work also explores the intersection of cybersecurity, safety and operational performance, helping organizations understand how security decisions influence broader business and operational outcomes.
Drawing upon nearly two decades of industry experience and doctoral research in cyber resilience, Dr. Perrett offers evidence-based guidance to help organizations assess, measure, operationalize and continuously improve resilience across complex industrial environments.
Throughout her career, she has worked extensively with organizations operating safety-critical and mission-critical systems, combining practical engineering experience with strategic cybersecurity leadership and research-driven resilience methodologies.
Prior to joining Gartner, Dr. Perrett held senior leadership positions at Thales, including OT Technical Authority and Lead OT Cyber Engineer. In these roles, she held technical ownership of the OT product portfolio, provided strategic consultancy, leadership and cyber resilience expertise across critical national infrastructure sectors including energy, utilities, defence, transport and manufacturing. Her work focused on OT security, cyber resilience, governance, risk management and incident response for complex industrial environments.
Before joining Thales, Dr. Perrett spent more than twelve years within NHS Wales, beginning her career as a Networks and Telecommunications Engineer before progressing into cybersecurity leadership roles. Her experience includes network engineering, telecommunications, wireless technologies, red-team penetration testing, security operations centre leadership, wearable medical IoT and product security authority responsibilities.
Thales, OT Technical Product Authority & Lead Cyber Engineer (OT), 7 years
NHS Wales, Senior Cyber Security Product Specialist, PenTester, Network & Telecoms Eng, 12 years
Infrastructure Resilience and Disaster Recovery
Security and Risk Management for CISO Coalition
Cybersecurity Leadership
Establish Governance Frameworks for Responsible AI Development, Standardized Tools and Secure Operational Practices
Enterprise and Technology Risk and Resilience
PhD in Cyber Resilience for Safety-Critical Complex Systems 2023
MSc Computer Systems and Security - 2018
How to assess, measure, operationalize and continuously improve cybersecurity and resilience across Cyber-Physical or OT environments.
How leaders can better understand, manage and improve cyber resilience across complex industrial and safety-critical environments.
Issues relating to the intersection of cybersecurity, safety and operational performance.
Helping CPS organizations understand how security decisions influence broader business and operational outcomes.
OT Network Segmentation, OT Secure Remote Access, OT Back-up & Recovery, OT Asset Discovery and OT Intrusion / Anomaly detection, Monitoring and Incident response (ONLY in the CPS / OT domain)