The industry which faces the highest risk of a cyberattack is the Energy industry, specifically in Europe, US, and Canada.
According to a survey sponsored by the security firm Secure Computing, a breach of the energy sector would be more likely than in the financial sector which is the most prepared for a cyberattack. Other industries are also meagerly protected according to 50% of survey respondents.
The survey participants were comprised of nearly 200 critical industry leaders from U.S. and Canada and more than half of them said that major attacks of critical infrastructure have already occurred. Only 2% said a severe exploit would never happen.
The factor that causes a higher likelihood of an attack on the energy industry is the increase in the number of access points, such as sensors, smart metering, and other remote management tools, followed by open IP-based networks, corporate and operational network integration, relying on such standard platforms as Microsoft Windows, and lack of attention to security by system vendors.
The largest bottleneck for improving the security is cost, and then apathy, bureaucracy and internal issues being tied for third place.
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