Anything online is subject to cybersecurity risk_

And today - everything is online, including Industrial Control Systems (ICS). As an important part of any modern manufacturing facility, they often control critical production processes, heating or cooling, lighting, monitoring environmental levels etc.

Publicly accessible ICS are a problem, because:

• they attract attackers and malware
• they often run on outdated firmware with known vulnerabilities
• their misuse can cause direct harm (financial, reputation, health and safety)
• when breached, they can act as a transit-station for attacking the rest of the network
• they might indicate a low level of company’s cyber defences in general

In a secure cyberspace, there should be no (i.e. zero) ICS anonymously accessible from the Internet.

The reality?

Below you can find the results of how many ICS are accessible from the Internet and their split by 8 most popular protocols used.

Note: 2020-10-12 Moxa and ipc@chip added

We understand that securing Industrial Control Systems is not a trivial task and has many specific caveats. At the same time, it’s also essential for improving your overall cyber-resilience and avoiding possible disasters. We’d be happy to discuss this in more detail and work on it with your company.