October 7, 2022
Industrial control systems (ICS) and their adjacent operational technologies (OT) govern most everything societies rely on in the modern age. Manufacturing facilities, water treatment plants, mass transportation, electrical grids, gas, and oil refineries… all include some degree of ICS/OT incorporated in their industrial processes. Cyberattacks against these are on the rise and the challenge to protect industrial control systems persists. Recent research from DarkOwl analysts specifically identifies an alarming number of threats on the darknet and deep web that could effectively target and compromise critical infrastructure.
DarkOwl is not the only one taking note of these trends and associated challenges. Hybrid CoE, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, has published a Working Paper entitled Defending critical infrastructure: The challenge of securing industrial control systems, diving into the topic of cyber threats affecting industrial control systems, the downstream affects and what can be done from a policy perspective.
Last week, DarkOwl CEO Mark Turnage participated in a webinar, “Defending Critical Infrastructure: The Challenge of Securing Industrial Control Systems” hosted by Hybrid CoE, with speakers from The United States Army College, the Internal Society of Automation (ISA), and the National Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukraine.
The panelists discussed DarkOwl’s recent research in detail, covering topics such as cyber incidents affecting the vulnerabilities of industrial operations, recent examples from Russia’s war against Ukraine, specific OCS/OT threats on the darknet, and potential ways to develop more effective policies.
The slides that Mark Turnage shared during the webinar can be found here:
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