In a world where hackers attack home computer systems to steal identity, bank and credit card information, there is ever-present danger of cyberattack to hardware that controls everything from traffic lights to gas and water pipelines and the electrical grid.
Lantzville-based cybersecurity company aDolus Technology, which specializes in security of industrial control systems, was called upon to collaborate on this yearB次元官网网址檚 Microsoft Digital Defence Report. The annual report is studied by governments and industry to keep them updated on current and evolving cybersecurity threats.
ADolus contributed its research dealing with threats to operational technology and the B次元官网网址榠nternet of thingsB次元官网网址� to the report released this month. ADolus was the only company Microsoft collaborated with on the report, said Eric Byres, the companyB次元官网网址檚 chief technology officer.
B次元官网网址淭he reportB次元官网网址檚 a big deal. ItB次元官网网址檚 one of the big news items of the [cybersecurity] year, except for when something bad happens, and itB次元官网网址檚 sort of required reading for government officialsB次元官网网址次元官网网址� Byres said. B次元官网网址淥ut of the 127-page report, we were the only other company that they collaborated with, which kind of blew me away. I kind of figured they were collaborating with a bunch of people B次元官网网址� we were it. Just us.B次元官网网址�
Byres said Microsoft had massive amounts of data from about 1,200 of the most popular makes, models and versions of the products that are considered B次元官网网址渕ission criticalB次元官网网址� to industrial control systems around the world.
B次元官网网址淲hat we did with that is our guys wrote a bunch of artificial intelligence routines to then sort of correlate with vulnerabilities,B次元官网网址� Byres said.
The generated data allowed the aDolus team to look at the types of control units, their age, operating systems, updates including security updates, patches and known vulnerabilities.
B次元官网网址淚t was hard work to build all that AI out and have do all this hunting on the Internet to find all those vulnerabilities B次元官网网址� The first thing that shocked us about the whole thing was, wait a minute, 40 per cent of these mission-control systems are running [operating] systems that are 10 years old. Like, what?,B次元官网网址� Byres said. B次元官网网址淓verybody tells you to go patch your Windows, patch your phone, make sure you have it running on the latest version of iPhone, but youB次元官网网址檙e not patching something thatB次元官网网址檚 running a factory or a refinery? So, yeah, we were a little surprised.B次元官网网址�
In other words, what Byres and his team discovered was that industrial control systems cybersecurity and ability to ward off cyberattack is in worse shape than they thought. The Microsoft report stated that 57 per cent of devices on legacy firmware are exploitable to a high number of common vulnerabilities and exposures.
B次元官网网址淭he significance of maintaining a comprehensive [operational technology] patch management system cannot be overstated,B次元官网网址� the report noted.
To learn more about the current state of cybersecurity worldwide, visit the Microsoft Digital Defence Report 2023 at .
To learn more about aDolus Technologies, visit .
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