Over two fifths of critical infrastructure organisations have suffered a cyber breach, report finds

The study targeted respondents in key critical infrastructure industries – energy and utilities, telecommunications, transportation and trucking/shipping – and is reflective of 367 organisations across 18 countries.

Thales found that 42 per cent of these CI organisations suffered a data breach, with 93 per cent observing an increase in attacks.

The most common threats encountered were malware, phishing and ransomware. Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of organisations reported to have fallen victim to a ransomware attack in the past year, with 11 per cent paying the ransom. 

The leading cases of cloud-based breaches were found to include human error, accounting for 34 per cent of all attacks, and exploiting a known vulnerability, accounting for 31 per cent.

Failure to apply multifactor authentication (MFA) to privileged accounts was found to have led to 20 per cent of attacks, and almost a third (30 per cent) of CI organisations also experienced an insider threat incident.