Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 31 | Page 17

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TRENDING KEY FINDINGS ON THE STATE OF OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND CYBERSECURITY Environments running Operational technology (OT) are stepping up their focus on cybersecurity amid a growing number of attacks. This emerged in Fortinet’s recent State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report, which found about 74% of OT organisations have experienced a malware intrusion in the past 12 months. T he report found that a lack of cybersecurity contributes to risk. A total of 78% of the organisations polled have only partial centralised visibility on the cybersecurity of their OT environments, 65% lack role-based access control, and more than half do not use multi-factor authentication or internal network segmentation. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of OT leaders say that keeping pace with change is their biggest challenge, and www.intelligentcio.com almost half (45%) are limited by a shortage of skilled labour. However, OT organisations are increasing their focus on cybersecurity, with 70% planning to roll OT cybersecurity under the CISO in the next year, and 62% of cybersecurity budgets being increased. “OT is vital to public safety and economic well-being, controlling the equipment that “ IT’S IMPORTANT FOR OT TEAMS TO CONSIDER HOW THIS CONVERGENCE AFFECTS THE CYBERSECURITY POSTURE OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. INTELLIGENTCIO 17