Fortinet Report: OT Organizations Increasingly Targeted by Cyber Threats

#Fortinet has released its 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report. The report reveals that Operational Technology (OT) organizations are making strides in strengthening their security posture, but still face significant challenges in securing their increasingly converged IT/OT environments.

 

John Maddison, Fortinet’s Chief Marketing Officer, emphasizes the importance of adopting essential tools and capabilities to enhance visibility and protections across the entire network. This is crucial for reducing the mean time to detection and response and ultimately mitigating the overall risk of these environments.

Alan Reyes, Country Manager at Fortinet Philippines, highlights the growing sophistication of cyberattacks and the increasing compromise of many organizations’ OT systems. He stresses the need for Philippine organizations to bolster their security postures to counter these attacks, especially with the integration of IT and OT environments.

Key Findings from the Global Survey:

• Cyberattacks compromising OT systems are escalating. In 2023, 49% of respondents experienced an intrusion impacting either OT systems only or both IT and OT systems. This year, nearly three-fourths (73%) of organizations are being impacted.
• Organizations reported a high number of intrusions in the past 12 months. Nearly one-third (31%) of respondents reported more than six intrusions, compared to only 11% last year.
• Detection methods are struggling to keep pace with today’s threats. As threats grow more sophisticated, most organizations still have blind spots in their environment.
• Responsibility for OT cybersecurity is rising within executive leadership ranks at some organizations. The percentage of organizations aligning OT security with the CISO continues to grow, increasing from 17% in 2023 to 27% this year.

Best Practices:

The report offers actionable steps for enhancing organizations’ security posture. These include deploying segmentation, establishing visibility and compensating controls for OT assets, integrating OT into security operations and incident response planning, embracing OT-specific threat intelligence and security services, and considering a platform approach to the overall security architecture.

FAQs

1. What is the 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report? The report is based on data from a global survey of more than 550 OT professionals, conducted by a third-party research company. It represents the current state of OT security and highlights opportunities for continued improvement for organizations to secure an ever-expanding IT/OT threat landscape.

2. What are the key findings of the report? The report reveals that cyberattacks compromising OT systems are on the rise, with nearly three-fourths (73%) of organizations being impacted. It also shows that detection methods are struggling to keep pace with today’s threats.

3. What are the recommended best practices for enhancing an organization’s security posture? The report recommends deploying segmentation, establishing visibility and compensating controls for OT assets, integrating OT into security operations and incident response planning, embracing OT-specific threat intelligence and security services, and considering a platform approach to the overall security architecture.

4. Who are the respondents of the survey? The respondents are OT professionals from different locations around the world, representing a range of industries that heavily use OT. Most of those surveyed are deeply involved in cybersecurity purchasing decisions and many are responsible for operations technology at their organization.