UK manufacturing drops to second place in league table of most attacked industry sectors – 2019 Global Threat Intelligence Report reveals
UK Manufacturing and Technology sectors continue to battle it out for
first and second place in the table of most targeted industry sectors by cyber
attackers, according to the 2019 Global Threat
Intelligence Report (GTIR) from NTT Security, the is the
specialised security company and the center of excellence in security for NTT
Group. While Manufacturing took top billing in the 2018 GTIR, with almost half
(46 per cent) of all cyber attacks in the UK, this year’s report shows a
significant fall to second place with a fifth (20 per cent) of attacks.
However, the Tech sector, which attracted less than a quarter (23 per cent)
last year, jumps to top spot with 47 per cent of attacks in the UK.
Finance, which earlier this month was revealed to be the most attacked sector
in EMEA, accounting for 30% of all attacks, takes third place for the UK, with
13 per cent of attacks, falling some way short of the global figure of 17 per
cent. Business & Professional Services and Healthcare take fourth and fifth
place with 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.
The annual GTIR is the result of NTT Security summarising data from trillions
of logs and millions of attacks, and analysing threat trends based on log,
event, attack, incident and vulnerability data from NTT Group operating
companies. In the latest report, NTT Security analyses of attacks against 18
industry sectors.
David Gray, Senior Manager – Cyber Security Consulting, NTT Security, says:
“While manufacturing may have dropped down a position, the fact that it is
still attracting a fifth of all attacks against UK organisations is a major
concern. The critical national infrastructure sectors tend to grab the
headlines, such as the attacks on the Ukrainian national grid in 2016, or the
Wannacry attack on the NHS in 2017. However, the recent attacks on Norsk Hydro
demonstrate the impact that cyber attacks can have on other sectors, such as
manufacturing, and highlight the importance of effective incident response.”
David Gray adds: “The lines between traditional and digital manufacturing are
blurring, where high value manufacturing and advanced technologies are key for
global competitiveness and there is greater convergence of IT with Operational
Technology (OT), which brings with it greater complexity and risk. The problem
is that OT has traditionally been something of a ‘dark art’ for IT and security
teams who lack the knowledge and skills to effectively map their OT risk
landscape and implement practical plans and processes.”
NTT Security advises manufacturing organisations to focus on four key areas
when it comes to cybersecurity:
1. Get the basics right: without the right fundamentals in place, attacks do
not need to be advanced to succeed. People are often a manufacturer’s greatest
threat, so invest in staff awareness and training, and highlight the importance
of collective responsibility.
2. Take an intelligence-driven approach to security. IT and security should
avoid working in silos and having a ’not in my backyard’ mentality by
developing robust holistic processes and procedures.
3. Develop threat intelligence capabilities. There is no such thing as an
isolated incident and there is a need to manage the whole incident by
developing threat intelligence – pervasive visibility is essential.
4. Manufacturers are still failing to prepare. There is still an element of
‘head in the sand’, where they do not think it is going to happen to them.
Having effective incident response capabilities that are tested regularly is
key and enables organisations to respond quickly in order to mitigate the
threat and identify the cause.
China tops source of attacks table
Once again China is the number one source of attacks by country against UK
organisations (20 per cent) followed by the US (16 per cent) and France (10 per
cent). Apart from Sweden, the UK is the only country to see most attacks coming
from China. Across EMEA, China is second (13 per cent) just behind the US (16
per cent) while at a global level again the US is top attack source on 22 per
cent followed by China on 13 per cent.
To download the NTT Security 2019 GTIR: https://www.nttsecurity.com/2019GTIR
NTT Security is running a webinar called ‘How to shine a light on operational
technology risk’ at 2.00pm BST on 22nd May 2019. To register go to: https://www.nttsecurity.com/en-uk/landing-pages/operational-…
About NTT Security
NTT Security is the specialized security company and the center of excellence
in security for NTT Group. With embedded security, we enable NTT Group
companies (Dimension Data, NTT Communications and NTT DATA) to deliver
resilient business solutions for clients’ digital transformation needs. NTT
Security has multiple SOCs, seven R&D centers, over 1,500 security experts
and handles hundreds of thousands of security incidents annually across six
continents.
NTT Security ensures that resources are used effectively by delivering the
right mix of Managed Security Services, Security Consulting Services and
Security Technology for NTT Group companies – making best use of local
resources and leveraging our global capabilities. NTT Security is part of the
NTT Group (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), one of the largest ICT
companies in the world. Visit nttsecurity.com to learn more about NTT Security
or visit www.ntt.co.jp/index_e.html
Methodology for the GTIR
The NTT Security 2019 Global Threat Intelligence Report contains global attack
data gathered from NTT Security and supported operating companies from October
1, 2017, to September 31, 2018. The analysis is based on log, event, attack,
incident and vulnerability data from clients. It also includes details from NTT
Security research sources, including global honeypots and sandboxes located in
over 100 countries in environments independent from institutional
infrastructures. Leveraging the indicator, campaign and adversary analysis from
our Global Threat Intelligence Platform has played a significant role in tying
activities to actors and campaigns.
NTT Security summarizes data from trillions of logs and billions of attacks for
the 2019 GTIR. NTT Security gathers security log, alert, event and attack
information, enriches it to provide context, and analyzes the contextualized
data. This process enables real-time global threat intelligence and alerting.
The size and diversity of our client base, with over 10,000 security clients on
six continents, provides NTT Security with security information which is
representative of the threats encountered by most organizations.
The data is derived from worldwide log events identifying attacks based on
types or quantities of events. The use of validated attack events, as opposed
to the raw volume of log data or network traffic, more accurately represents
actual attack counts. Without proper categorization of attack events, the
disproportionately large volume of network reconnaissance traffic, false
positives, authorized security scanning and large floods of DDoS monitored by
Security Operations Centers (SOCs), would obscure the actual incidence of
attacks.
The inclusion of data from the 10 SOCs and seven research and development
centers of NTT Security provides a highly accurate representation of the
ever-evolving global threat landscape.
Media contact:
Amanda Hassall, Consultant
M: +44 (0)7855 359889
T: +44 (0)1628 822741
amanda@origincomms.com