Intelligent CIO Kuwait Issue 3 | Page 12

TRENDING //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// KUWAIT SUFFERING FEWER ATTACKS ON INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEM COMPUTERS Attacks on Industrial Control System (ICS) computers are on the increase but the good news is Kuwait has fared better than many countries, according to a new report issued by Kaspersky Lab. K uwait is better off than other countries in the Middle East when it comes to suffering attacks on Industrial Control System (ICS) computers, according to a report by Kaspersky Lab. More than 40% of all ICS computers protected by Kaspersky Lab solutions globally were attacked by malicious software at least once during the first half of 2018. Middle East countries were among the top 20 countries by percentage for having ICS computers attacked during the period. Cyberattacks on industrial computers are considered to be a dangerous threat as they cause material losses and production downtime for whole systems. 12 INTELLIGENTCIO Moreover, industrial enterprises knocked out of service can seriously undermine a region’s social welfare, ecology and macroeconomics. The research found that within geographical regions, the figures can vary significantly between different countries. For example, the situation in South Africa is the most favourable compared to most African countries, but Kuwait was found to be noticeably better off than other countries in the Middle East region. Statistics collected by Kaspersky Lab researchers show that this kind of threat is of growing concern. In the first half of 2018, 41.2% of ICS computers were attacked at least once. Moreover, this is a growing trend: “ KUWAIT WAS FOUND TO BE NOTICEABLY BETTER OFF THAN OTHER COUNTRIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST REGION. www.intelligentcio.com