Cyber Security Study Reveals Sobering Results

Nov 11, 2008 10:42 AM

A study that surveyed 199 international security experts and other "industry insiders" from utilities, oil and gas, financial services, government, telecommunications, transportation and other critical infrastructure industries found that more than half of these experts believe that most critical infrastructure continues to be vulnerable to cyber attack. Further, a majority of respondents said that major attacks have already begun or are likely to occur in the next 12 months. The study was performed by Secure Computing Corp., an enterprise gateway security company.

"An attack on any one of these industries could cause widespread economic disruptions, major environmental disasters, loss of property and even loss of life," says Elan Winkler, director of critical infrastructure solutions for Secure Computing. "This study revealed that many critical infrastructure organizations are simply not ready for the cyber attacks which are coming soon."

Rick Nicholson, vice president of research for Energy Insights, an IDC company, who authored the white paper based on the survey, adds, "Most utility CIOs believe that their companies will be compliant with relevant standards, but still have a long way to go before being adequately prepared for all cyber attacks."

In the study, respondents were asked to indicate the state of readiness for eight different industries. For some sectors, such as postal/shipping and transportation, as many as three out of four experts indicated that the infrastructure was not ready for attack. Only the financial services industry was considered prepared, although nearly 40 percent believed that even this sector was not ready to defend itself.

Survey participants were also asked which industry was the biggest target, which was the most vulnerable to attack and which was the most detrimental if breached. The insiders picked the energy sector in all three cases, with 33 percent saying it was the biggest target, 30 percent saying it was the most vulnerable and 42 percent saying it would be the most detrimental if attacked.

When asked to name the biggest bottleneck to improving cyber security, the largest number of experts (29 percent) pointed to the cost of security measures. Apathy was the second most likely to be selected as the primary bottleneck, with government bureaucracy and internal issues tying for third.

Energy Insights identified three trends which are likely to increase the vulnerability of critical infrastructure in the future:

-- Interconnectivity among networks will expand. Already 62 percent of North American respondents said that their control systems were directly connected to an IP-based network or the Internet. A full 98 percent of respondents believed this makes them more vulnerable.
-- Intelligent grid and similar initiative will continue to grow. As companies deploy new technologies such as smart meters, sensors and advanced communications networks, they run the risk of increasing their vulnerability unless they include security as an integral part of the projects.
-- Cost cutting efforts will not go away. During times of economic hardship, organizations are expected to increase their use of "standard" IT platforms, further increasing their vulnerability to attack.

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