Manufacturers increasingly wary of nation state threats, survey reveals

The survey of 1,500 manufacturing IT decision makers across North America, UK, Germany, Japan, and Australia revealed that while 41 per cent anticipate an elevated risk of cyberattack in 2023, three-quarters of respondents fear nation-state attacks on the sector and 65 per cent are concerned about foreign governments spying on their facilities. At the same time, 68 per cent say OT infrastructure is difficult to defend and 86 per cent admit to running core functions on outdated and unsupported legacy operating systems.

In a statement, Shishir Singh, CTO, Cybersecurity at BlackBerry, said: “Global manufacturers are headed for stormy waters as nation states up the ante on surveillance and the risk of a cyber incident is high – and rising – yet the industry is hampered by a threat surface that is largely antiquated and difficult to defend. Over the last year, three cybersecurity trends significantly impacted OT and IoT infrastructure: ransomware attacks, phishing attacks, and third-party software vulnerabilities.”