Analyzing CPS Attack Trends

Key Findings

Hacktivists Favor Weak Protocols

Hacktivists sympathetic to adversarial nation-states hurdle low barriers to entry to access and compromise CPS, primarily leveraging insecure protocols such as VNC, and targeting HMIs and SCADA systems.

CPS Attacks Align Geopolitically

Hacktivists also attack exposed CPS in countries or regions aligned with their political or social goals. Of the 200-plus attacks, most incidents were aligned to Russia- and Iran-affiliated threat actors, targeting mostly EU countries, and Israel and the U.S. respectively.

Industries in the Crosshairs

Manufacturing, water and wastewater, and power generation are the most targeted sectors we observed. These three account for more than 45% of the attacks we observed in the 20 sectors where we recorded and verified incidents involving CPS assets.