PPG
The attack surface here isn't virtual - it's physical, chemical, and sprawling across 50+ countries. PPG is a $15.9 billion industrial coatings and specialty materials company (Fortune 500, ranked 284 in 2025), headquartered in Pittsburgh with operations touching aerospace, automotive, marine, packaging, and construction. Founded in 1883, the company produces everything from protective and marine coatings to optical monomers and filtration technologies, selling under brands like Comex, Sigma, and Johnstone's. The threat model for a manufacturer this size spans operational technology networks in global plants, proprietary formula data, supply chain integrity, and the usual enterprise IT estate. Security teams working in this environment deal with converged IT/OT environments - factory floor control systems connected to corporate networks, R&D data pipelines carrying proprietary material science IP, and a sprawling digital footprint from e-commerce to customer portals. The industrial verticals - automotive OEM coatings, aerospace applications, traffic solutions - each bring their own compliance regimes and regulatory pressure. This isn't a SaaS shop with a clean cloud perimeter; it's legacy infrastructure meeting modern manufacturing with endpoints that include chemical processing equipment. PPG's technical domains center on coatings science, color technology, and sustainability-driven innovation, but the cybersecurity challenge is securing all of it: protecting trade secrets that represent 140+ years of accumulated know-how, defending global operations from ransomware and supply chain compromise, and building resilience across a footprint that spans continents. The scope demands people who understand that securing an industrial enterprise means thinking beyond the corporate firewall.
The attack surface here isn't virtual - it's physical, chemical, and sprawling across 50+ countries. PPG is a $15.9 billion industrial coatings and specialty materials company (Fortune 500, ranked 284 in 2025), headquartered in Pittsburgh with operations touching aerospace, automotive, marine, packaging, and construction. Founded in 1883, the company produces everything from protective and marine coatings to optical monomers and filtration technologies, selling under brands like Comex, Sigma, and Johnstone's. The threat model for a manufacturer this size spans operational technology networks in global plants, proprietary formula data, supply chain integrity, and the usual enterprise IT estate.
Security teams working in this environment deal with converged IT/OT environments - factory floor control systems connected to corporate networks, R&D data pipelines carrying proprietary material science IP, and a sprawling digital footprint from e-commerce to customer portals. The industrial verticals - automotive OEM coatings, aerospace applications, traffic solutions - each bring their own compliance regimes and regulatory pressure. This isn't a SaaS shop with a clean cloud perimeter; it's legacy infrastructure meeting modern manufacturing with endpoints that include chemical processing equipment.
PPG's technical domains center on coatings science, color technology, and sustainability-driven innovation, but the cybersecurity challenge is securing all of it: protecting trade secrets that represent 140+ years of accumulated know-how, defending global operations from ransomware and supply chain compromise, and building resilience across a footprint that spans continents. The scope demands people who understand that securing an industrial enterprise means thinking beyond the corporate firewall.