INFOGRAPHIC
INFOGRAPHIC
More than 40% of ICS
computers attacked during
first half of 2018
Research shows that African countries
were worse off when it comes to ICS
computers that were attacked.
M
ore than 40% of all industrial
control system (ICS) computers
protected by Kaspersky Lab
solutions were attacked by malicious
software at least once during the first half
of 2018.
The most impacted countries were Vietnam,
Algeria and Sri Lanka, while the safest
region for industrial machines was Denmark.
These are among the main findings of
the Kaspersky Lab ICS CERT report on the
industrial threat landscape.
Cyberattacks on industrial computers are an
extremely dangerous threat as they cause
material losses and production downtime
for a whole system. Moreover, industrial
enterprises knocked out of service can
seriously undermine a region’s social welfare,
ecology and macroeconomics.
Statistics collected by Kaspersky Lab
researchers show that this kind of threat is
of growing concern. In the first half of 2018,
41.2% of ICS computers were attacked at
least once. Moreover, this is a continuation
of a trend because, in 2017, the figure
increased from 36.61% in the first half of
the year to 37.75% in the second half.
Top countries by the number of ICS computers
attacked in 2018 were Vietnam, where 75.1%
of ICS computers were attacked; Algeria, with
71.6%; and Morocco with 65%.
As for the least attacked industrial facilities,
the top three countries turned out to be
Denmark with 14% attacked computers in
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INTELLIGENTCIO
industrial enterprises, followed by Ireland
with 14.4% and Switzerland with 15.9%.
Countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America
were significantly worse off in terms of the
percentage of ICS computers attacked in
regions in H1 2018 compared to H2 2017,
with Africa taking second place and the
Middle East coming in at eight.
Within geographical regions, the
figures can vary significantly between
different countries.
For example, the situation in South Africa
is the most favourable compared to most
African countries, and Israel and Kuwait are
noticeably better off than other countries in
the Middle East.
The largest number of threats come from
the Internet, which over the years has
become the main source of infection for
ICS: 27% of threats are received from the
world wide web; while removable storage
media is ranked second with 8.4%. Mail
clients occupy third place in terms of volume,
representing 3.8% of threats.
“The percentage of cyberattacks on ICS
computers is a concern,” said Kirill Kruglov,
Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
“Our advice is to pay attention to systems’
security from the very beginning of their
integration, when the systems’ elements are
first connected to the Internet – neglecting
security solutions at this stage could lead to
dire consequences.”
“
THE
PERCENTAGE OF
CYBERATTACKS
ON ICS
COMPUTERS IS A
CONCERN. OUR
ADVICE IS TO
PAY ATTENTION
TO SYSTEMS’
SECURITY
FROM THE VERY
BEGINNING
OF THEIR
INTEGRATION.
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