Infrastructure cyberattack fears on the rise

Cyber threats such as Stuxnet pose an increasing risk to critical infrastructure but many facilities around the world are unprepared to face the danger, according to a report released on Tuesday. "We found that the adoption of security measures in important civilian industries badly trailed the increase in threats over the last year," said Stewart Baker of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), releasing a report conducted with computer security firm McAfee.
For the report, "In the Dark: Crucial Industries Confront Cyberattacks," McAfee surveyed 200 information technology executives charged with security at power, oil, gas and water facilities in 14 countries. "What we found is that they are not ready," the McAfee-CSIS report said. "The professionals charged with protecting these systems report that the threat has accelerated - but the response has not."
Forty percent of the critical infrastructure executives surveyed said they believed that their industry's vulnerability had increased and 30 percent said their company was not prepared for a cyberattack. Forty percent said they expect a major cyberattack within the next year.
"Ninety to 95 percent of the people working on the smart grid are not concerned about security and only see it as a last box they have to check," said Jim Woolsey, a former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency. Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed said they frequently found malware designed to sabotage their systems and nearly half of the respondents in the electricity industry sector said they found Stuxnet on their systems. A top Iranian military officer last week accused the United States and Israel of being behind the computer worm designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.
Stuxnet reportedly targeted the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where several technical problems have been blamed for delays in getting the facility fully operational. Stuxnet targets computer control systems made by German industrial giant Siemens and commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other critical infrastructure.