Over eight in 10 (83%) of the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI) firms believe new technologies designed to enhance sustainability will become a significant vector for cyber-attacks, according to Bridewell.
The security services firm polled 500 cybersecurity decision-makers in the transport and aviation, finance, utilities, government, and communications sectors to compile its report, Security and Sustainability Across Critical National Infrastructure: 2023.
The report found that most UK CNI firms have active IT (58%) or OT (62%) projects underway, focused on reducing carbon emissions and enhancing resource efficiency.
However, the vast majority are also concerned that these new technology deployments – which could span cloud computing, renewable energy infrastructure and smart grids – will expand the cyber-attack surface and number of entry points across CNI networks.
Over two-fifths (42%) of respondents claimed these new technologies are harder to manage and protect, and a similar share (40%) that they will require significant retraining of security teams. Even more (43%) are concerned that the C-suite appears to have little understanding of the new risks their organization could be exposed to.
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