On Friday, Jan 07th, there was a significant rise in cyber attacks registered by our golbal threat inteligence gathering network. Most of these attacks were directed towards SCADA and ICS. Attacks on IoT and IIoT installations also registered a rise last week. Hackers could either be testing new forms of malware or new groups may have been activated this year to exploit the confusion created by a new round of lockdowns announced by governments around the world.
We can expect a similar rise in cyberattacks over the next few as we saw during the first and second waves of the pandemic. Therefore a steady rise in cyberattacks targeting industries such as oil and gas and large manufacturing plants cannot be ruled out. In our analysis over the last few months, we had predicted that if another wave of the pandemic were to occur, the cyberattacks on IoT and OT installations will also register a rise and that seems to be the case as of now.
Cybersecurity requirements have not been revised from a regulatory and compliance standpoint in many nations. This means that there will be many gaps left to be addressed to improve the cybersecurity posture of companies that have not done so voluntarily.
Weekly advisory
Segments under this list must be on high alert in the coming weeks:
- Critical Infrastructure
- Enterprise
- Healthcare
- Oil and gas
- Manufacturing
- Water and water treatment
- Utility treatment facilities
- Governments
- Financial services