OT Security Concern: Human Error & Staff Shortages

July 18, 2022

Findings indicate a shortage of well-trained OT security personnel, human error, and lack of visibility into OT networks are responsible for increasing OT attacks worldwide.

The global survey titled 2022 State of Operational Technology is the culmination of a survey of 3,500 OT security professionals on 6 continents. It offers sweeping insight into the minds of OT cyber security experts working in the critical infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.

Among the survey's key findings, 79% of OT experts believe human error is the greatest risk for compromise to OT systems. 83% of those surveyed believe there is a significant shortage of trained OT workers, with not enough new workers being trained to meet the growing demand. Additionally, 69% believe this shortage puts organizations at higher risk than ever before.

Survey results also show that experts believe that the lack of visibility into their OT/ICS networks is the biggest challenge to managing risks.

The survey also addressed the issue of successful IT-OT convergence, with 50% of respondents saying that proper communication between IT-OT teams is the biggest factor for success.

"SCADAfence commissioned this global survey because we know this is a critical time for OT and IoT security, and we wanted to fully understand the state of OT security preparedness on a global level," said Elad Ben-Meir, CEO of SCADAfence. "These results give everyone direction on what needs to happen next. It provides a roadmap for organizations in the critical infrastructure and industrial sectors on how to increase their ability to prevent a possible cyber attack and prevent downtime."