Spain, the fourth European country with the most cyber attacks on the industrial sector

March 16 (Portaltic/EP) –

Spain ranks as the fourth country in Europe with the most attacks on the industrial sector in 2022, where attacks with malicious ‘scripts’, ‘phishing’ and denial of service incidents stand out, according to the ‘ICS threat landscape report’ prepared by Kaspersky.

During the last six months of 2022, Kaspersky security solutions blocked ‘malware’ from 7,684 different families that threatened industrial automation systems in sectors such as the automotive, engineering or energy sectors. The figure is higher (6%) compared to the last six months of 2021.

Last year was the year with the highest percentage of operational technology (OT) equipment affected by ‘malware’ worldwide (40.6%). However, the situation changes depending on each industry: in the second half of 2022, both the automotive and energy sectors grew in affected OT systemswith an increase of 4.6 percentage points (up to 34.5%) and 1 percentage point (up to 36.9%), respectively.

Spain ranks as the fourth country in Europe with the most attacks on the industrial sector (26.3%), behind Portugal (33.1%), Estonia (31.2%) and Latvia (29.9%). Malicious scripts and phishing techniques – posing as a legitimate source – were the most frequent cyberattacks, accounting for 11.6 percent of the total.

they follow the trojans, the back doors (‘backdoors’) and the ‘keyloggers’ -which monitors each key pressed to extract information-, with 8.6 percent, and those of denial of service (DDoS), with 7.6 percent.

From Kaspersky they point out that the use of spyware also It was a trend in Spain, where it was used to remotely access computers, the theft of personal information and the subsequent kidnapping of data through ‘ransomware’.

FORECASTS FOR 2023

For this year, the technology company predicts a change in advanced persistent threats (APT) against organizations and smart devices (OT) in new industrial sectors and locations.

Sectors of the economy such as agriculture, logistics and transportation, energy, high technology, pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers they will suffer more attacks next year. Traditional targets, such as military and government ones, will also be in the crosshairs.

Threats will also focus on unmanned transport. They will be both targets and attack tools. In addition, during this year, geopolitical incidence will also have a global effect on industrial cybersecurity.