Claroty, the cyber-physical systems protection company, today released new research showing that 75% of respondents reported being targeted by ransomware in the past year. The report, “The Global State of Industrial Cybersecurity 2023: New Technologies, Persistent Threats, and Maturing Defenses,” is based on a global independent survey of 1,100 information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) security professionals who work in critical infrastructure sectors, exploring industry challenges faced in the past year, their impact on OT security programs, and priorities moving forward.
The study shows that, when it comes to ransomware attacks, the impact on OT environments is catching up to the impact on IT environments. In Claroty’s previous survey conducted in 2021, 32% of ransomware attacks impacted IT only, while 27% impacted both IT and OT. Today, 21% impact IT only, while 37% impact both IT and OT – a significant 10% jump for the latter in just two years. This trend speaks to the expanding attack surface area and risk of operational disruption that comes with IT/OT convergence.
On top of the growing operational impact of ransomware, the staggering financial impact persists. Of the 75% of respondents whose organizations were targeted by ransomware attacks in the past year, 69% paid the ransom, and more than half (54%) of those who paid the ransom suffered financial ramifications of $100,000 USD or more. As a likely result, demand for cyber insurance is high among respondents. A large majority (80%) of organizations have cyber insurance policies and about half (49%) have opted for policies with coverage of half a million dollars or more.
The pressure of combating increased threats as well as financial loss comes as new technologies are being integrated into OT environments. For example, 61% of respondents are currently utilizing security tools that leverage generative AI and an alarming 47% say that it raises their security concerns.
In light of…
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