Australia the fourth most popular target for industrial cyber attacks: report

The latest Nozomi Networks Labs OT & IoT Security Report finds Australia is now the fourth most cyber-attacked country and wireless networks are woefully unprotected as threat actors continue to gain deep access into critical infrastructure. In addition, in the second half of last year, critical infrastructure organisations in the United States saw the highest number of attacks, with manufacturing at highest risk.

Australia fourth most attacked country

In the last six months, Australia, previously not featured in the top five most attacked countries, rose to fourth position behind only the United States, Sweden and Germany. Australia reported the fourth highest number of alerts per customer operating system, reflecting an increase in attacks attempting to gain access to Australian critical infrastructure industries. The top five most targeted sectors include critical manufacturing, energy, communications, transportation systems and commercial facilities.

In Australia, the most common types of attacks are network denial-of-service (23.38%), network service scanning (21.1%), remote system discovery (21.1&), adversary-in-the-middle (20.05%), and brute force (4.99%).

Wireless networks a high security risk

In the latest report, an analysis of more than 500,000 wireless networks worldwide found only 6% are adequately protected against wireless deauthentication attacks. This means most wireless networks, including those in mission-critical environments, remain highly exposed. In health care, for example, vulnerabilities in wireless networks could lead to unauthorised access to patient data or interference with critical systems. Similarly, in industrial environments, these attacks could disrupt automated processes, halt production lines or create safety hazards for workers.

Cyberthreat activity poses a high risk across industries

According to the report, in the second half of last year, nearly half (48.3%) of the observed cyberthreat alerts occur in the Impact phase of the cyber kill chain. This was true across various industries, particularly in manufacturing, transportation, energy, utilities and water/wastewater. Command and control (C&C) techniques followed closely (25% of all observed alerts). The Labs’ findings demonstrate the presence of adversaries deep within critical infrastructure systems and their intent to persist and maintain control over access.

Vulnerability insights

Researchers also discovered, among 619 newly published vulnerabilities in the second half of 2024, 71% are classified as critical. Additionally, 20 vulnerabilities have high EPSS scores, indicating a high likelihood of future exploitation. Furthermore, four vulnerabilities have already been observed being actively exploited in the wild. These findings point to an urgent need for organisations to promptly address and mitigate the most critical and dangerous vulnerabilities.

Additionally, of all ICS security advisories released by CISA over the past six months, critical manufacturing topped the list, accounting for 75% of all common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) reported in the past six months. Manufacturing was followed by energy, communications, transportation and commercial facilities.

Security insights and recommendations to protect critical infrastructure

“Cyber attacks on the world’s critical infrastructure are on the rise,” said Chris Grove, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Nozomi Networks. “The systems we design and defend must not only withstand a barrage of threats in today’s multipolar world but also balance the need to operate safely at scale, where human lives are at stake.

“By understanding these evolving threats and leveraging actionable insights, we can defend our critical infrastructure systems to ensure resilience, safety and operational continuity in an increasingly uncertain world.”

The ‘OT/IoT Cybersecurity Trends and Insights’ report can be read here.

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