International. In the last year about 70% of oil and gas companies in the United States were hacked or suffered some type of cyber attack, and the risk of suffering from that type of vulnerability, especially in the operational part, is present in at least 65 of the companies in that industry.
This was determined by the German multinational Siemens, in the study "The State of Cybersecurity in the Oil & Gas Industry: United States" carried out by the Ponemon Institute of the USA.
Siemens will bring technology to Mexico to reduce that risk in the oil and gas industry, thus protecting this national industry.
"The fact that nearly 70 percent of oil and gas companies were hacked in the last year should serve as a call to action," said Judy Marks, CEO of Siemens USA.
"As oil and gas producers use digitalization to be more secure and efficient, there is a clear need to increase the defenses of operational technology, which is even more vulnerable to attack than the IT environment," he added.
"We can leverage our deep expertise in managing cybersecurity through a global footprint. We help our customers assess risk, secure infrastructure and provide cyber solutions specific to the operating environment, from the field to the control center and ultimately the enterprise."
The study reveals that 68 percent of respondents said their operations had at least one security flaw in the past year.
"Only about one-third of U.S. cyber oil and gas managers rate their organization's cyber availability as high, while 59 percent believe there is a greater risk to operational technology than to IT."
The Ponemon Institute states that in the United States only 35 percent of respondents rated their organization's cyber availability of operational technology (OT) as high.
The Ponemon Institute — which conducts independent research on privacy, data protection and information security policy — examined how oil and gas companies are addressing cybersecurity risks.
Its authors surveyed 377 people in the United States who are responsible for securing or monitoring cyber risk in the OT environment, including upstream, midsize, and downstream applications.
Since the majority of respondents described their organization as being in the early to mid-maturity stage regarding its cyber availability, 68 percent said their operations have had at least one security flaw in the past year, resulting in the loss of sensitive information or OT disruption.
Other key findings related to availability, risks and challenges include that 59 percent believe there is a greater risk in the OT environment than in the IT environment, and 61 percent said their organization has difficulty mitigating cyber risks across the oil and gas value chain;
65 percent of respondents say the top cyber threat is negligent or careless insider information and 15 percent of respondents say it is the malicious or criminal intruder – underscoring the need for advanced monitoring solutions and critical security zones to identify atypical behavior among staff, while 61 percent say the protection and security of their organization's industrial control systems is inadequate.
