Survey: Critical infrastructure at high risk demanding priority from IT security

The research reveals that cyber attackers have a clear understanding of the operational technology (OT) and the industrial control system (ICS) engineering and have conducted attacks that pose a great threat to the operations and the human safety.

”This research concludes that industrial control systems can no longer be ignored,” said Ian Bramson, Global Head of Industrial Cybersecurity at ABS Group, noting that “organizations that take a ‘copy and paste’ approach to applying IT security tools, processes and best practices into an OT/ICS environment can expect problematic consequences.”

More specifically, the key findings include:

#1 Gap in Perception around ICS Risks at Different Levels within the Organization

• 61% of survey participants indicate a gap exists in the perception of cybersecurity risk to their ICS facilities between OT/ICS cybersecurity front-line teams and other parts of the organization.

• 35% of these, indicate the gap is between senior management and the OT/ICS cybersecurity front-line teams.

#2 Ransomware is the Biggest Threat to OT

• The industrial community is seeing ransomware with increasingly sophisticated variants that have the capability to cause more disruption to system assets and process flows.
• When asked about the threat categories of most concern, 50% of respondents place ransomware at the top.
• Targeting ICS operations using ransomware is a goal of the adversary as targeting ICS operations can lead to higher and quicker payouts.

#3 ICS Security Resources are Challenged, Even more so than IT

• Security teams are commonly resource-challenged in IT, but even more so in ICS, where additional security and engineering knowledge is required to perform effective ICS active cyber defense.
  • 47% of ICS organizations do not have internal dedicated 24/7 ICS security response resources to manage OT/ICS incidents, and just a slightly lower percentage (46%) of ICS organizations do have this function, leaving 7% unsure of their current state.
  • OT/ICS security managers can improve their security program and lead their teams to success by allocating resources through new hires, changing internal roles to focus exclusively on ICS security or outsourcing to MSSP support services.

#4 ICS System and Network Visibility Warrants Improvement, Investments are Planned

• • • 65% indicate their visibility is limited for control systems, while only 22% have visibility needed to defend against modern threats, and 7% have no visibility into their control systems.
    • Increased visibility into control system assets (52%) and implementing ICS-specific network security monitoring (NSM) for control systems (51%) rank as the top two budgeted initiatives for organizations within the next 18 months.

Critical infrastructure is targeted by cyber adversaries who have demonstrated their knowledge and desire to cause real-world consequences from cyber-attacks. ICS/OT facilities are advised to establish, maintain and mature an ICS Active Cyber Defense

said Dean Parsons, Lead Researcher and Certified Instructor, SANS Institute, adding that “facilities must ensure ICS/OT defenders have knowledge of their control systems, the evolving threat landscape and, with ICS network visibility, monitor for abnormal events in control system network traffic.”

Mr. Parsons concluded that managers and leaders responsible for ICS/OT must understand, embrace the IT/OT differences and support their ICS defense teams with security controls specific to control systems that priority safety“, he concluded.

In fact, Hapag-Lloyd informed that its IT security team has found a copy of its website on the web, which is very likely to be used for a spear phishing attack.

This means that e-mails are used to redirect users to this site and when they log in with their personal access data, which are then tapped by criminals.