The growing number and diversity of connected devices in every industry presents new challenges for organisations to understand and manage the risks they are exposed to . Most organisations now host a combination of interconnected IT , OT and IoT devices in their networks that has increased their attack surface .

According to a recent report by the Ponemon Institute , 65 % of responding organisations say that IoT / OT devices are one of the least secured parts of their networks , while 50 % say that attacks against these devices have increased . IT security practitioners in 88 % of those organisations have IoT devices connected to the Internet , 56 % have OT devices connected to the Internet and 51 % have the OT network connected to the IT network .

Threat actors are well aware of these trends . Forescout recently reported on how ransomware groups have started massively targeting devices such as NAS , VoIP and hypervisors . Not surprisingly , most of these devices were among the riskiest identified in the 2020 Enterprise of Things Security Report .

Many of the device types observed among the riskiest in 2020 remain in the list , such as networking equipment , VoIP , IP cameras and Programmable Logic Controllers ( PLCs ). However , new entries such as hypervisors and Human-Machine

Interfaces ( HMIs ) are representative of trends including critical vulnerabilities and increased OT connectivity .

2022 ’ s riskiest connected devices

Using Forescout ’ s scoring methodology , Vedere Labs identified the five riskiest devices in four device categories : IT , IoT , OT and IoMT .

• IT : Router , computer , server , wireless access point and hypervisor

• IoT : IP camera , VoIP , video conferencing , ATM and printer

• OT : PLC , HMI , uninterruptible power supply ( UPS ), environmental monitoring and building automation controller

• IoMT : DICOM workstation , nuclear medicine system , imaging , picture archiving and communications system ( PACS ) and patient monitor

For an analysis of what makes these devices so risky and their distribution by industry ( financial , government , healthcare , manufacturing and retail ) and geography ( Americas ; Asia-Pacific ;

Europe ; and Middle East , Turkey and Africa ), read the full report .

How organisations can mitigate risk

“ We have seen two recurring themes in Vedere Labs ’ research , which this report reinforces ,” said Daniel dos Santos , Head of Security Research at Forescout ’ s Vedere Labs . “ First , attack surfaces are growing quickly due to more devices being connected to enterprise networks , and second , threat actors are increasingly able to leverage these devices to achieve their goals .

“ Unfortunately , the attack surface now encompasses IT , IoT and OT in almost every organisation across the globe , with the addition of IoMT in healthcare . It is not enough to focus defences on risky devices in one category , as attackers will leverage devices in different categories to carry out attacks . Vedere Labs has demonstrated this with R4IoT , demonstrating how an attack that starts with an IP camera ( IoT ), can move to a workstation ( IT ) and disable PLCs ( OT ).” u

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