• Industrial control systems (ICS) across Africa are facing more and more cyber threats, according to a new report from Kaspersky.
• These systems are usually employed in large-scale industrial companies and their compromising can mean catastrophic consequences.
• As digital transformation takes hold across industries, it is essential for these large corporations to invest in cybersecurity.

A new industrial control systems (ICS) threat landscape report published by Russian online security firm Kaspersky indicates that attacks on industrial computers across Africa are on the increase.

ICS computers are used most often in large-scale industrial corporations and businesses, such as in the oil and gas sector, as well as in energy, automotive manufacturing, and others to perform OT functions like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA).

Attacks on these machines may cause material losses and production downtime for entire facilities, amounting to millions if not billions of dollars in losses if attacks aren’t handled or contained in time. The macroeconomics of entire regions can be affected by attacks of large-enough scale.

Last year, South Africa’s port authority Transnet was struck by a suspected ransomware attack that crippled its digital processes. For several days all the sea ports of the country were at a standstill, running at around 10 percent capacity. The attack is believed to have had “catastrophic” consequences for the country’s economy.

“Sophisticated attacks have increased the demand for better visibility of the cyber-risks that impact industrial control systems,” warns Emad Haffar, head of technical experts at Kaspersky.

According to the report, various types of “malicious objects” were blocked on one in three ICS computers in South Africa (33 percent, marking an 11 percent increase from the second half of 2021) over the last six months.

Across Africa, 36 percent of Kenyan ICS terminals blocked malicious entities, a 20 percent increase from last year, while in Senegal there was 41 percent of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, In Nigeria – 34 percent, and in Gabon – 38 percent.

In terms of targeted industries, ICS computers in the META (Middle East, Turkey and Africa) region in oil and gas faced attacks most often (47 percent of these systems were attacked).

Attacks on building automation systems were the second most common – 45 percent of ICS computers in this sector were targeted. The energy sector was also among the top 3 environments that got attacked (41 percent of computers affected).

According to the report, the most popular attack vectors used against ICS processes in the African region are malicious scripts and phishing pages.

In the last six months, such scripts and pages were blocked on 19 percent of ICS computers in South Africa, a 12 percent increase from H2 2021. In Senegal, Nigeria and Gabon, 13 percent of ICS computers were affected, and 17 percent in Kenya.

Concerningly, Kaspersky says that every tenth ICS computer in Africa had spyware on it blocked in H1 2022. In South Africa, spyware was blocked on 9% of ICS computers.

The huge number of blocked attacks on these systems in South Africa alone calls for concern and should be seen as a stern warning for these large industries. It is often said that cyberattacks are not a question of how, but when.

It seems to us that the next Transnet is only a matter of time unless there is an industry-wide, and perhaps country-wide, shift into taking cybersecurity seriously, especially as systems become more and more digitised. October is cybersecurity awareness month, and this month is as good a time to start investing in industrial cybersecurity as any.

“The integration of IT and OT systems has highlighted the need for comprehensive yet purposely built cybersecurity programs. Digital transformation programs require a new approach to ensure the secure deployment and operation of a variety of new, potentially unsafe devices within plant boundaries,” Haffar concludes.

Kaspersky’s full report can be read here.

[Image – Robin Sommer on Unsplash]