Most critical infrastructure execs can ‘detect’ cyberattack in under 24 hours

While the majority of executives in the critical infrastructure industry acknowledge that their companies are cyber criminals’ targets, close to half think that their security processes are capable of detecting attacks on their core systems in less than a day.

However, this means that a large number believe  it could potentially take longer than 24 hours, and possibly even weeks, to identify a cyberattack. Over 4,000 execs in the utility, gas, and oil industries were surveyed by security vendor Tripwire for its “Critical Infrastructure Study” publication.

Although around 61% are confident that their company security systems are capable of cyber-attack detection in under a day, Tripwire’s Rekha Shenoy believes that the confidence is unfounded.

She said in an email to SCMagazineUK.com:

“The idea that these attacks would be detected quickly is basically a perception that’s driven from the ability of these organisations to deliver energy with very high availability. However, in our experience, these organisations don’t have the visibility into cyber-security issues that would allow them to detect an attack faster than other industries.”

Such limited visibility is a potential issue, taking into account that 83% of those surveyed said that their infrastructure could suffer serious damage from an attack.

Those executives that feel confident must have quality personnel in place, but if that is not the case, their sense of security just may be false. The only way to identify and deal with threats is to make IT security jobs available to those who are trained in dealing with cyberattacks.