Fortinet has announced the findings of its 2020 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report. The survey reveals that operational technology (OT) leaders are highly respected in their organizations and that their teams are vital to their companies’ bottom lines. Cybersecurity continues to be an integral part of their daily work and that work continues to be a struggle.
The survey of OT leaders conducted by Fortinet indicates that only 8% of respondents had seen no intrusions over the past 12 months. The finding also shows a significant percentage of organizations have not extended some elements of basic security hygiene into their OT environments.
A deeper look into the data highlights:
OT Infrastructures Still Lack Core Cybersecurity Protection: The majority of responding organizations reported that they had been largely unsuccessful at preventing cyber criminals from exploiting their systems. Among those surveyed, it was also found that:
- 90% have experienced at least one intrusion in the past year
- 72% have experienced three or more intrusions in the past year
- 26% have experienced six or more intrusions in the past year
The impact of these exploitations was also noted by respondents, with more than half 51%documenting lost productivity, 37% seeing operational outages impacting revenue, and 39% having their physical safety put at risk—a significant concern considering the inherent dangers of industrial facilities.
OT leaders also noted the commonality of specific attack methods, including malware (60%), phishing (43%,) hackers (39%), ransomware (37%), denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks (27%), and insider breaches (18%).
Rajesh Maurya Regional Vice President, India & SAARC at Fortinet said, “OT Leaders find it challenging to deploy the right security tools and keep up with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats that await their newly-connected systems. As OT systems lose their air gaps and become integrated with IT systems, OT leaders will need to reinforce security awareness by Implementing best practices, bolster their systems with centralized visibility and take a proactive approach to security to turn the tables on cybercriminals and help protect their critical OT infrastructures”.
