by MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE global shortage of semiconductors has exposed industries to rising cyber crime.
The worst is yet to come.
This is the warning of a cyber security expert as these malicious groups target computers in the industrial control systems (ICS) environment through multiple means.
In the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region, Kaspersky solutions blocked malicious objects on 38 percent of ICS computers.
Globally the share of ICS computers with blocked malicious objects stands at 31,8 percent.
Advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks on industrial systems are projected to get even more sophisticated in the coming months.
“The period of global instability provokes global semiconductor shortage,” explained Vladimir Dashchenko, Kaspersky Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team expert.
“In turn, that causes companies to lower their budgets on cybersecurity, which becomes a critical issue in 2022-2023, especially in view of the evolving threat landscape.”
Dashchenko forecast that critical industrial infrastructure solutions will be a new target for cyber crime.
Demand for integrated circuits (commonly known as semiconductor chips) exceeds the supply, affecting more than 160 industries, according to experts.
It peaked from 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 and has been exacerbated by geopolitical conflict.
Kaspersky revealed that during the three quarters of 2022, in the META region, ICS computers in the oil and gas sector faced attacks most often (39,3 percent of them got attacked).
Attacks on building automation systems were in second place (38,8 percent of ICS computers were targeted.
The energy sector was also among the top three environments that got attacked (36,8 percent).
Cyber attacks on industrial computers are considered extremely dangerous as they may cause material losses and production downtime for the controlled production line and even the facility as a whole.
– CAJ News