Operational tech devices exposed to known vulnerabilities
Analysis of close to one million operational technology (OT) devices by Claroty's Team82 research group finds that 12 percent contain known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs), and 40 percent of the organizations analyzed have a subset of these assets insecurely connected to the internet.
The report uncovered over 111,000 KEVs in OT devices across manufacturing, logistics and transportation, and natural resources organizations, with 68 percent of these being linked to ransomware groups. The manufacturing industry was found to have the highest number of devices with confirmed KEVs (over 96,000).
"The inherent nature of operational technology creates obstacles to securing these mission critical technologies," says Grant Geyer, chief strategy officer at Claroty. "From embedding offensive capabilities in networks to targeting vulnerabilities in outdated systems, threat actors can take advantage of these exposures to create risks to availability and safety in the real world. As digital transformation continues to drive connectivity to OT assets, these challenges will only proliferate. There is a clear imperative for security and engineering leaders to shift from a traditional vulnerability management program to an exposure management philosophy to ensure they can make remediation efforts as impactful as possible."
See also:
- Over 60 percent of enterprise cybersecurity incidents relate to known risks
- Average cost of industrial data breaches soars
- Manufacturing and industrial sectors most targeted by attackers
Among the report's other findings, seven percent of the devices are exposed with KEVs that have been linked to known ransomware samples and actors, with 31 percent of the organizations analyzed having these assets insecurely connected to the internet.
In addition 12 percent of organizations in the research had OT assets communicating with malicious domains, demonstrating that the threat risk to these assets is not theoretical.
The you can read more and get the full report on the Claroty blog.
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