"OT/ICS Cybersecurity Threats Remain High"

Organizations' security postures have significantly matured in response to Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) cybersecurity threats. According to the SANS 2022 OT/ICS Cybersecurity Report, a Nozomi Networks-sponsored SANS Institute survey, despite progress, more than a third (35 percent) of respondents do not know whether their organizations have been compromised. In addition, attacks on engineering workstations have doubled in the last year. While organizations are proactively strengthening their digital defenses, the survey reveals that there is still work to be done. The risk to OT environment was rated as high or severe by 62 percent of respondents (down from 69.8 percent in 2021). Ransomware and financially motivated cybercrime ranked first (39.7 percent), followed by nation-state-sponsored attacks (38.8 percent). Non-ransomware criminal attacks ranked third (32.1 percent), closely followed by hardware/software supply chain risks (30.4 percent). While 10.5 percent of respondents said they had faced a breach in the previous 12 months (down from 15 percent in 2021), 35 percent said the engineering workstation was an initial infection vector (up from 18.4 percent last year). IT compromises continue to be the most common access vector (41 percent), followed by replication via removable media (37 percent). Sixty-six percent say their control system security budget has increased in the last two years, up from 47 percent the previous year. Fifty-six percent now detect compromises within the first 24 hours of an incident (up from 51 percent in 2021). Most (69 percent) say they go from detection to containment in 6 to 24 hours. This article continues to discuss key findings from the SANS 2022 OT/ICS Cybersecurity Report on OT/ICS cybersecurity threats and the maturing of ICS cybersecurity postures.

Security Magazine reports "OT/ICS Cybersecurity Threats Remain High"