More than eight in 10 (86%) of manufacturers admit to running outdated or unsecured operating systems on their IT systems in a survey by BlackBerry. Many hardware used is also outdated. The practice poses cybersecurity risks.
A total of 1,500 manufacturing IT decision-makers in North America, the UK, Germany, Japan and Australia participated in the survey. Asked about cyber attacks, respondents said they were most concerned about malicious attacks via connected devices, including the Internet of Things (40%). Unauthorised access to sensitive data by rogue insiders according to with 29%. Ransomware also continues to worry respondents; 23% report being concerned about it. Politically-motivated attacks are a concern for 19%.
'Obstacle to development'
BlackBerry points out that cyber risks in operational technology are fast becoming an obstacle to development. For instance, many managers are limited in their approach to cyber risks because their organisation is working with outdated hardware and operating systems. They also struggle to bring together security on new and legacy systems.
What is striking is the percentage of IT decision-makers who admit that their organisation is running outdated operating systems. As many as 86% confirm that this is the case. The practice carries risks, as the operating systems no longer receive technical support from the manufacturer. Specifically, this means, among other things, that security problems that turn out to be in the operating systems are no longer plugged. This plays into the hands of attackers.
Thirty-year-old operating system still in use
How outdated many operating systems are is also evident from the survey. For example, more than a third of respondents say they are still using Windows NT. This operating system appeared in 1993 and has not received technical support for almost 20 years. Almost half (46%) say they use Windows XP, which was released in 2001. Support for Windows XP ended in 2014.
More than half (57%) also deploy workstations running Windows 7. Support for Windows 7 was discontinued by Microsoft three years ago. 57% are using Windows 8. This operating system has not been supported since January 2023.
Upgrading is far from always possible
Another problem is that upgrading is far from always possible. For example, as many as seven in 10 IT decision-makers indicate that outdated hardware limits their ability to update their OT assets and endpoints. BlackBerry calls this "extremely risky".
The company stresses that keeping an IT environment secure with outdated and isolated devices is difficult, but not impossible. Thus, companies in the manufacturing industry use a variety of measures to enhance security. These include securing physical access to data and systems, as well as using secure configurations. Another example is the use of anti-virus software and firewalls.
In practice, BlackBerry calls this approach a "patchwork" that requires a lot of management. For example, 95% of respondents say they update their legacy operating systems at least once a month to fix vulnerabilities.
SMEs increasingly targeted
Recent figures from ABN AMRO show that it is not only large companies that are targeted by cybercrime, but increasingly SMEs as well. To date, 80 per cent of SMEs have been targeted by cybercriminals at some point. This means that SMEs are now more frequently the victims than large companies, where the figure stands at 75 per cent. The risk lies in the fact that, despite the growing threat, SMEs’ perception of the risk lags behind. For example, only 29 per cent of SMEs view cybercrime as a major risk, which is the same as last year.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source photo: Pixabay / pixelcreatures
