Researchers Warn of 100,000 Industrial Control Systems Exposed Online

About 100,000 industrial control systems (ICS) are exposed on the public web, putting power grids, traffic lights, security systems, and water systems at risk of unauthorized access. Cybersecurity company BitSight discovered the problem, which affects many Fortune 1000 companies in 96 countries. While the number of exposed devices has decreased since 2019, the United States, Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom are among the most exposed countries. The least secure sectors in terms of ICS security include education, technology, government, and manufacturing. Industrial systems are vulnerable to critical vulnerabilities, and previous estimates suggest that 20% of all ICSs are at risk. The extent of damage that hackers can cause with an attack on these exposed systems is unclear, but organizations should implement basic security measures like VPN access, multi-factor authentication, and network segmentation for secure remote access to ICS.