Security News > 2021 > June > Utilities ‘Concerningly’ at Risk from Active Exploits

Ransomware attacks on utilities certainly persist at critical threats.

"These legacy systems have had to be rapidly switched to customer self-service mode, and while the user experience may have been updated, the core transactional systems are still unchanged," Kulkarni added.

"These OT/IoT systems are connected to backend systems, most of which are legacy transactional systems," Kulkarni said.

"OT/IoT systems themselves are not well-secured and at the same time the legacy transactional systems were not designed to meet the scale and security needs of this hyper-proliferation of OT/IoT devices.

Janky legacy system integration aside, utilities also struggle to find a way to invest in the security necessary to protect vital public services.

Once the threat is mitigated, there is ample opportunity to find the root cause and systematically fix the issue," Kulkarni explained, adding that the final step is to "develop a security program that takes into account the 'two-speed' need for securing legacy systems and modern greenfield systems.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/utilities-risk-active-exploits/166908/