"Cybersecurity Budgets for Industrial Control Systems and Operational Tech Increasing: SANS Institute"
Survey results released by Nozomi Networks and the SANS Institute indicate that companies are increasingly investing in the cybersecurity of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) to catch up with the growing sophistication of the cyber threat landscape. The 2021 SANS ICS/OT survey received 480 responses, 47 percent of which reported an increase in their ICS security budgets over the past two years. Another 32 percent said that there was no change. Almost 50 percent of the respondents reported that they did not know whether their organizations had experienced a cybersecurity incident, while only 15 percent said their organizations had faced such an incident within the last 12 months. Over half of those who experienced cybersecurity incidents were able to detect compromise between 6 and 24 hours. The engineering workstation was said to be the initial infection vector by almost 20 percent of the respondents. Nearly half mentioned external connections as the main access vector, while 36 percent cited remote access services as a common initial access vector used by threat actors. The cloud is also playing a more significant role in Operational Technology (OT) environments, with 40 percent of the respondents saying they use cloud-based services for OT/ICS systems. Over 90 percent use cloud technology for remote monitoring configuration and analysis, OT support, and remote control/logic. Those who use cloud technology said they apply it for at least one type of cybersecurity function. This article continues to discuss key findings from the 2021 SANS ICS/OT survey.