More Than Half Of Critical Infrastructure Firms Have Been Hit By State-Sponsored Attacks

  /     /     /  
Publicated : 22/11/2024   Category : security


More Than Half Of Critical Infrastructure Firms Have Been Hit By State-Sponsored Attacks


Survey finds energy, banking and finance, healthcare, IT, emergency services, communications firms worldwide expecting more targeted, politically motivated attacks



Politically motivated, state-sponsored attacks are happening regularly: Fifty-three percent of critical infrastructure firms around the globe say they have been hit with an attack aimed at a specific political goal, a new report from Symantec found.
A survey of 1,580 energy, banking and finance, healthcare, IT, emergency services, and communications firms worldwide found that these firms have each suffered about 10 such politically motivated, state-sponsored attacks in the past five years. Around 60 percent of these attacks worldwide were somewhat to extremely effective, the respondents said, and 74 to 77 percent of the firms in North America said the attacks on them were effective.
Small businesses suffered the most bruising attacks, according to the report, with an average cost of $850,000 per attack.
Worries about these targeted, politically motivated attacks are high of late, with the Stuxnet worm attack that went after factory floor plant systems. Stuxnet serves as cautionary tale of the potential of these brands of attacks, according to Symantec.
Stuxnet is an example of the threats these companies are feeling the pressure from and feel are going to continue, says Justin Somaini, CISO for Symantec. These threats take many forms -- a denial-of-service, compromising a SCADA system [like Stuxnet], and attacks on financial systems, he says.
The Symantec 2010 Critical Infrastructure Protection Study, which was conducted by Applied Research and commissioned by Symantec, found that 48 percent of these firms expect more such attacks in the next year, and 80 percent say these attacks will either remain constant or will increase.
Meanwhile, 90 percent say they have participated in their own countrys Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) program, with around 56 percent being significantly or completely engaged in these programs. Energy firms are the most involved, with 83 percent fully embracing these programs. IT was less likely to do so (49 percent).
This significant desire by industry to partner or participate in CIP programs surprised me, Somaini says. I expected less participation than what I saw.
Meanwhile, 28 to 33 percent of the critical infrastructure firms say they are extremely prepared for these forms of attacks, 36 to 41 percent are somewhat prepared, and 31 percent are less than somewhat prepared.
Have a comment on this story? Please click Discuss below. If youd like to contact
Dark Readings
editors directly,
send us a message
.

Last News

▸ Debunking Machine Learning in Security. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ Researchers create BlackForest to gather, link threat data. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security

▸ Travel agency fined £150,000 for breaking Data Protection Act. ◂
Discovered: 23/12/2024
Category: security


Cyber Security Categories
Google Dorks Database
Exploits Vulnerability
Exploit Shellcodes

CVE List
Tools/Apps
News/Aarticles

Phishing Database
Deepfake Detection
Trends/Statistics & Live Infos



Tags:
More Than Half Of Critical Infrastructure Firms Have Been Hit By State-Sponsored Attacks