Industrial Cybersecurity: Be Informed, Be Very, Very Informed

Thanks to high-profile hacks with visible, real-world consequences like the Colonial Pipeline hack, 2021 will be remembered by many as the year cybercrime prevention started to actually matter.

While cybercrime has been a major concern for decades, the devastating impact on everyday life rendered by the largest attacks of 2021 functioned as a wake-up call for large segments of the population that had never previously prioritized the security of their network, data, or devices.

The alarm reached not just regular citizens, but the industrial companies, manufacturers, utilities providers, and governments responsible for creating and administrating the infrastructures on which citizens rely.

Now that these larger parties—and crucially, their customers and communities—understand the stakes of the cybersecurity game, what should they expect in 2022?

Though 2021 was rife with panic-inducing headlines over the surging scourge of ransomware, the total number of attacks actually dropped relative to the prior year. This may assuage fears for individuals, but for manufacturers, enterprises, and utilities it should do the opposite; the prevailing wisdom is that attack totals dropped because hackers grew more sophisticated and strategic in their targeting, not because they lost interest.