Sectrio

Weekly threat monitor: November 8th

Cyberattacks on the oil and gas segment cooled down a bit after almost 200 days of rising consistently. Such a dip in attacks could mean the hackers are getting ready for more attacks or are revisiting their cyberattack strategies or are awaiting a new malware dump to surface.

Past trends indicate that a dip in attacks is not always a positive sign. A persistent dip should ideally be something to worry about.

OT and IoT focused cyberattacks on Water and wastewater treatment facilities are once again at the center of a major rise. We are seeing this trend play out majorly in North America and Europe. Cyberattacks on manufacturing plants and maritime facilities held steady last week.

Overall, the average cyberattacks logged by our honeypot registered a slight dip this week. This could be the start of a new trend as mentioned before. Healthcare entities should brace themselves for a significant rise in IoMT, OT and IoT cyberattacks in the next few months leading up to the new year. We are already seeing a slight rise in multi-phase cyberattacks targeting healthcare installations across the globe.

However, unlike the quality of OT and IoT cyberattacks, we saw during the first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in some countries, these attacks are being carried out by individuals or low-profile hacker groups. Most of these attacks are of low sophistication and are easy to detect and mute.

Cyberattacks on OT and IoT deployments in manufacturing plants continue to rise as shop floors return to full capacity.

OT and IoT Weekly threat advisory

Entities belonging to these segments should be on their guard in the coming week:

  • Water and water treatment
  • Utility entities
  • Oil and gas
  • Manufacturing
  • Healthcare
  • Government websites and agencies – especially lawmakers and government agencies connected with internal/homeland security
  • Manufacturing plants and maritime agencies 
  • Financial services
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