Operational technology security incidents impacted 46% of organizations around the world during the past year, with ransomware accounting for nearly half of such incidents, SecurityWeek reports.
The United Arab Emirates and the U.S. had the highest percentage of ransomware attacks against OT systems, while such intrusions were mostly targeted at government, manufacturing, and healthcare entities, a report from TXOne showed. Active vulnerability exploitation and malware infections were also among the leading OT security incidents faced by organizations but more than three-quarters of surveyed organizations also expressed significant concern for state-backed cybersecurity threats.
Meanwhile, most OT security incidents have been attributed to maintenance activities, including software and firmware updates, settings reconfigurations, and new app installations.
"A typical situation is when an asset goes into maintenance and it's disconnected from other services, maintenance staff would install/copy something from that asset. That's the point that the malware can enter the system, mostly through removable storage media," said TXOne.
Ransomware dominates OT security incidents
Operational technology security incidents impacted 46% of organizations around the world during the past year, with ransomware accounting for nearly half of such incidents, SecurityWeek reports.
Attackers behind the scheme placed an ad on the LEGO website homepage that urged visitors to click a link that would "unlock secret rewards," which redirects to a third-party marketplace enabling purchases of the fraudulent LEGO token with Ethereum.
Threat actors who infiltrated the online store of 5.11 Tactical were able to exfiltrate information from individuals who shopped from July 12 to August 22, including their names and email addresses, as well as their payment card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes.