The State of Industrial Security in 2022

Industrial security: Challenges and opportunities

Security for the industrial internet of things (IIoT) and operational technology (OT) is in its infancy in many organizations. Several factors — including security incidents — are driving awareness and improvements. There’s certainly plenty of room for both, considering more than 90% of organizations surveyed acknowledged experiencing a security incident in the last 12 months.

From web application attacks to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and everything in between, global businesses are dealing with a wide range of potential cybersecurity risks. In addition, respondents are also concerned about the impact that the current threat landscape and geopolitical situation could have on their organizations. While that largely sits outside an organization’s control, it impacts them in some shape or form and is a concern.

Security threats are rife, and organizations should be protecting themselves, especially those in the critical sectors, such as oil and gas. Just one successful supply-chain attack can have widereaching, catastrophic impacts. Indeed, the high level of incidents underscores the vital need for IIoT/OT security to adequately protect all organizations, in every sector.

This report takes an in-depth look at IIoT/OT security projects, implementation challenges, security incidents, technology investments, and a variety of issues related to cybersecurity risks.

Methodology

Barracuda commissioned independent market researcher Vanson Bourne to conduct a global survey of senior IT managers, senior IT security managers, and project managers responsible for IIoT/OT in their organization. There were 800 survey participants from a broad range of industries, including agriculture, biotechnology, construction, energy, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, wholesale, and others. Survey participants were from the U.S., Europe, and Australia. In Europe, respondents were from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The survey was fielded in April 2022.