According to Kaspersky ICS CERT, in the second half of 2022, the company’s security solutions globally blocked 6% more malware families on industrial automation systems than in the first half of the year – 147% more than in the second half of 2021.
Compared to other regions, the Middle East remains highly targeted by ransomware attacks and is among the top three regions ranked by the percentage of industrial control systems (ICS) which were attacked using removable media – USB flash drives or hard drives. Africa tops the regional rankings with most ICS computers targeted using removable devices. In Turkiye, throughout 2022, there was an increase in attacks blocked in multiple industries including building automation, energy, and engineering.
In the second half of 2022 in Africa, the percentage of ICS computers on which spyware was blocked was 12% which was the highest figure for any region of the world. In terms of other malware categories blocked on ICS in Africa, malicious scripts and denylisted Internet resources top the list with 14% and 13,2% attacks stopped. Malicious scripts and phishing pages (JavaScript and HTML) are distributed both online and via email. A significant part of denylisted Internet resources are used to send out malicious scripts and direct to phishing pages.
Other categories of malicious objects that were blocked on ICS computers in Africa include worms (7,1%), malicious documents (5%), and viruses (4,8%).
The situation with the number of attacks blocked varied across different industries. In Africa, the most targeted industries in the second half of 2022 were energy (in this sector attacks were blocked on 43,6% of ICS computers), engineering (41,8%), and oil & gas (41,2%).
“Overall, 2022 stands out for its abnormal absence of any seasonal changes,” says Kirill Kruglov, senior researcher at Kaspersky ICS CERT. “The team observed a steadily high rate of attacks on industrial sectors without a typical drop in attacks during the European summer vacations or winter holiday period. However, the growing attack rates in industrial sectors that are being conducted using social engineering seem alarming.
“We strongly recommend customers in these sectors to revise their existing approach to security and check whether all security systems are up-to-date and their personnel are well-trained,” says Kruglov.