Fortinet announced the findings from its global 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report. The results represent the current state of operational technology (OT) security and highlight opportunities for continued improvement for organizations to secure an ever-expanding IT/OT threat landscape. In addition to trends and insights impacting OT organizations, the report offers best practices to help IT and OT security teams better secure their environments.
While this year’s report indicates that organizations have made progress in the past 12 months related to advancing their OT security posture, there are still critical areas for improvement as IT and OT network environments continue to converge.
Key findings from the Fortinet global survey include:
- Cyberattacks that compromise OT systems are on the rise. In 2023, 49% of respondents experienced an intrusion that impacted either OT systems only or both IT and OT systems. But this year, nearly (73%) Global organizations and (65%) of Indian organizations are being impacted. The survey data also shows a year-over-year increase in intrusions that only impacted OT systems (from 17% to 25%). Given the rise in attacks, nearly half (47%) of respondents indicate that they measure success based on the recovery time needed to resume normal operations.
- Organizations experienced a high number of intrusions in the past 12 months. More than half (55%) of respondents reported more than six intrusions, compared to only 11% last year.All intrusion types increasedcompared to the previous year, except for a decline in malware. Phishing and compromised business email intrusions were the most common, while the most common techniques used were mobile security breaches and web compromise.
- Detection methods aren’t keeping pace with today’s threats. As threats grow more sophisticated, the report suggests that most organizations still have blind spots in their environment. Respondents claiming that their organization has complete visibility of OT systems within their central security operations was only 15%. However, those reporting 75% visibility increased, which suggests that organizations are gaining a more realistic understanding of their security posture. Yet more than (70%) of respondents experienced ransomware or wiper intrusions—almost double the attacks reported in 2023—indicating that there is still room for improvement regarding network visibility and detection capabilities.
- Responsibility for OT cybersecurity is elevating within executive leadership ranks at some organizations. The percentage of organizations that are aligning OT security with the CISO continues to grow, increasing by twice the number in 2023 to 33% this year. At the same time, there was an increase to move OT responsibility to other C-suite roles, including the CIO, CTO and COO, to upwards of 60% in the next 12 months, clearly showing concern for OT security and risk in 2024 and beyond. Findings also indicate that some organizations, where the CIO is not outright responsible, there is an upward shift of these responsibilities from theDirector of Network Engineering to the Vice President of Operations role, which illustrates another escalation of responsibility. This elevation into the executive ranks and below, regardless of the title of the individual overseeing OT security, may suggest that OT security is becoming a higher-profile topic at the board level.
John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet, said: “Fortinet’s 2024 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report shows that while OT organizations are making progress in strengthening their security posture, teams still face significant challenges in securing converged IT/OT environments. Adopting essential tools and capabilities to enhance visibility and protections across the entire network will be vital for these organizations when it comes to reducing the mean time to detection and response and ultimately reduce the overall risk of these environments.”
