In a report released Wednesday, Kaspersky Lab found that malicious activity targeting industrial control systems (ICS) impacted nearly half (47.2 percent) of all computers under its protection in 2018, up from 44 percent in 2017. The report, issued by Kaspersky Lab’s ICS computer emergency response team (CERT), indicated that malicious actors used a wide variety of attacks in 2018, including malware and ransomware. CERT said it identified 415 vulnerabilities in different ICS components in 2018, compared to 322 vulnerabilities in 2017. Kaspersky examined vulnerabilities across a wide range of industries and found that critical manufacturing, energy, water, and wastewater systems sectors experienced the most vulnerabilities. Dams, emergency services, and nuclear reactors, materials, and waste experienced the least number of vulnerabilities last year, the company said.
