Survey says: power grid, oil and gas production most vulnerable to cyber attack
November 12, 2014 | By
Barbara Vergetis Lundin
A recent study commissioned by Honeywell and conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs Research among 5,065 adults across 10 countries, reveals that 75 percent of people are fearful that cyber attacks are being carried out on major industries and sectors of the economy in their countries. The fears are well-founded. The Department of Homeland Security said that more than 40 percent of industrial cyber attacks in the United States targeted the energy industry in 2012, the last full year reported. "Cyber attacks are a clear and present threat to every industry, in every country throughout the world," said Michael Chertoff, co-founder and executive chairman of the Chertoff Group, and former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "This threat is real and industries need a proactive and coordinated approach to protect their assets as well as their intellectual property. We have seen a number of attacks to critical industries in areas like the Middle East and the U.S. and these have had major impacts on their operations." The British government estimates that cyber security breaches at British energy companies alone cost those companies about 400 million pounds ($664 million) every year. About a third of respondents (36 percent) do not believe it is possible to stop all cyber attacks with another 36 percent lacking faith in their country's ability to keep up with cyber attacks. This 36 percent believes their governments and other organizations are not taking these threats seriously enough, particularly those respondents in India (61 percent), China (48 percent), and Mexico (47 percent). Forty percent of survey respondents are not sure about how well their government or private industrial sectors are able to defend against cyber hackers, including 10 percent who are not at all confident. When asked about the vulnerability of nine critical industry sectors (which have varying degrees of computer and internet security systems in place to guard against cyber hackers), majorities of respondents see all sectors as being vulnerable to cyber attacks. Industrial sectors likely to be perceived as vulnerable to such attacks include oil and gas production (64 percent), medical/health care/pharmaceuticals (64 percent), power grid (63 percent), chemicals (61 percent) and aerospace/defense (59 percent). For more:
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