Securing a Multi-Trillion Dollar Industry and National Critical Infrastructure from Cyberattacks

The Oil and Gas sector is an industry that serves several critical dependencies from Governments, Organizations, and Individuals. Combined with the industry’s critical impact on many stakeholders, vendors, and consumers, the Oil, and Gas sector has become a lucrative target for malicious attackers and APT groups. The cybersecurity situation is further complicated as thousands of assets within an organization might be vulnerable if the system administrators do not regularly patch the vulnerabilities disclosed by official vendors and researchers.

The dependency on the Internet of Things (IoT) has drastically increased over the past decade. However, IoT devices’ vulnerability and susceptibility to cyber-assault have grown proportionally. This is the primary driver behind conducting digitalization in tandem with a strong cybersecurity framework. Organizations dealing in Oil and Gas should build their networks with proper segmentation as any exposed assets over the internet can be utilized to breach the victim organization. The impact of such a breach can be severe as it can directly or indirectly lead to financial loss, loss of life, damage to critical infrastructure, and key institutions like power, defense, and healthcare being impacted.

This report provides key insights into the threat landscape of the Oil and Gas industry and how early threat intelligence can aid organizations and entities in shielding themselves from various cyberattacks. The high-level insights provided here can help leaders and organizations build stronger cyber resilience in the future, backed by timely threat intelligence.