"A Third of Industrial Control Systems Attacked in H1 2021"

Researchers at Kaspersky have found that around one in three industrial control systems (ICS) were targeted by malicious activity in the first half of 2021. The Russian security vendor claimed its solutions blocked over 20,000 malware variants from more than 5000 families during the period.  Of the 33.8% of ICS machines targeted in H1 2021, internet-based threats dominated (18.2%), followed by those delivered via removable media (5.2%) and malicious email attachments (3%). The researchers stated that deny-listed internet resources were blocked on 14% of computers. Next came malicious scripts and redirects (8.8%), followed by spyware including backdoors, Trojans and keyloggers (7.4%), and ransomware (0.4%). According to recent research, the number of ICS vulnerabilities reported in the first half of 2021 surged 41%, with most (71%) classified as high severity or critical.  ICS systems covered by the researchers included Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) servers, data storage servers, data gateways, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), mobile and stationary workstations, and computers used for industrial network administration.

Infosecurity reports: "A Third of Industrial Control Systems Attacked in H1 2021"