A new study by Siemens and Ponemon Institute found out that cyber security attacks in the Middle East are widespread and mostly undetected and that 30% of them target the Operational Technology (OT).
The study examining the oil and gas sector reveals that more needs to be done for the protection of OT if operating environments needs to be secured.
The study launched in Dubai highlights that with the stimulation of digitalization and the merging of IT and Operational Technology (OT), the region now seems to be at high risks.
Surveying around 200 cyber security experts in the Middle East the report investigates the readiness of the Middle East’s oil and gas sector to identify and protect against cyber threats and assesses what measures need to be taken to close the gaps.
Leo Simonovich, Vice President and Global Head, Industrial Cyber at Siemens Energy declared the convergence of IT and OT a key opportunity for attackers infiltrating an organization’s critical infrastructure and disrupting physical devices or operational processes.
OT sector is claimed to be at high risk of cyber attacks than IT, but the budgets for OT cyber services have not been kept up with the threat despite awareness of rising OT cyber risk. On average, only a third part of their total budget is dedicated to the security of OT environment.
Enumerating the six principles and underlying the most effective OT cyber programs, the report urges to assign a dedicated ownership for OT cyber security. The terror of connectivity must be overcome by organizations gaining continuous clarity of their OT assets, and security of the operating environment needs to be their initial priority. Smarter and faster decisions must be made by analytics. Lastly, it is significant to partner OT cyber security dexters with real domain expertise.
Source: TradeArabia