Cyberattacks, perceived as politically motivated, have hit more than half of the critical infrastructure providers, found a Symantec Corp survey on Oct. 6.
The critical information infrastructure is defined as businesses and industries that could cause a threat to national security if their cybernetworks were breached or disabled, according to Internet security company Symantec.
The survey was conducted by Symantec in August 2010, and included 1,580 enterprises in 15 countries. It focused on six segments of the critical infrastructure: energy, banking & finance, communications, IT, health care, and emergency services, according to Symantec.
Participants in the study who said they were hit by such attacks reported that they were targeted an average of 10 times over the last five years, which cost them an average of $850,000, according to Symantec.
It adds that the energy industry was the best prepared for such attacks, while the communications industry was the least prepared. Only a third of the critical infrastructure providers said they feel “extremely prepared against all types of attacks,” with 31 percent saying they “felt less than somewhat prepared,” according to Symantec.
It adds that small companies reported being the least prepared.
“Critical infrastructure protection is not just a government issue. In countries where the majority of a nation’s critical infrastructure is owned by private corporations, in addition to large enterprises, there is also the presence of small and medium-sized businesses,” said Justin Somaini, chief information security officer at Symantec, in a press release.
Somaini added that “Security alone” is not enough to stop today’s cyberattacks, and that “The Stuxnet worm that is targeting energy companies around the world represents the advanced kind of threats that require security, storage, and back-up solutions, along with authentication and access control processes to be in place for true network resiliency.”
The critical information infrastructure is defined as businesses and industries that could cause a threat to national security if their cybernetworks were breached or disabled, according to Internet security company Symantec.
The survey was conducted by Symantec in August 2010, and included 1,580 enterprises in 15 countries. It focused on six segments of the critical infrastructure: energy, banking & finance, communications, IT, health care, and emergency services, according to Symantec.
Participants in the study who said they were hit by such attacks reported that they were targeted an average of 10 times over the last five years, which cost them an average of $850,000, according to Symantec.
It adds that the energy industry was the best prepared for such attacks, while the communications industry was the least prepared. Only a third of the critical infrastructure providers said they feel “extremely prepared against all types of attacks,” with 31 percent saying they “felt less than somewhat prepared,” according to Symantec.
It adds that small companies reported being the least prepared.
“Critical infrastructure protection is not just a government issue. In countries where the majority of a nation’s critical infrastructure is owned by private corporations, in addition to large enterprises, there is also the presence of small and medium-sized businesses,” said Justin Somaini, chief information security officer at Symantec, in a press release.
Somaini added that “Security alone” is not enough to stop today’s cyberattacks, and that “The Stuxnet worm that is targeting energy companies around the world represents the advanced kind of threats that require security, storage, and back-up solutions, along with authentication and access control processes to be in place for true network resiliency.”
