More than half of respondents believe that attacks are already being carried out, 14 percent predict that the greatest threats will occur in the next twelve months, and only two percent say that a serious attack will never be carried out.
These results, plus the fear of attacks in the energy sector have led to the expansion of security legislation on electricity companies since September 2008.
The energy industry is vulnerable due to the increase in the number of access points through the use of sensors in addition to contracts with third parties with remote access capacity, the increased use of IP-based networks, the integration between corporate and operations networks, the use of common platforms such as Microsoft Windows, as well as the lack of attention regarding the automation of networks and vendors of control systems.
The biggest bottleneck in improving the security of critical infrastructure is costs, followed by apathy, analysts have revealed.
