7 Steps to Prevent a Critical Infrastructure Cyberattack

Some of the nation’s most crucial systems are also its most at-risk. Cybercriminals are targeting energy, defense, health care and manufacturing facilities with increasing frequency, and rising digital transformation may worsen the trend. A critical infrastructure cyberattack is no longer just a hypothetical — it’s a real threat organizations must address today.

The FBI received over 1,000 reports of ransomware attempts against critical infrastructure sectors in 2023. It’s not a question of if but when companies in these industries will have to manage such an incident. Thankfully, prevention and mitigation are possible. Here’s how businesses can stay safe.

1. Identify Vulnerabilities

The first step in preventing critical infrastructure cyberattacks is recognizing where they’ll likely occur. Vulnerability identification will help organizations determine where to allocate resources for more effective defenses.

Ideal cybercrime targets have two primary qualities — they would cause widespread damage if breached and are relatively easy to attack. Organizations must look for anything falling into these categories, especially if something fits into both. These systems or security gaps deserve the most attention in remediation efforts.

Penetration testing is a helpful way to discover these vulnerabilities. Regulations like the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification require annual third-party assessments, but even companies that don’t fall under these rules should conduct regular security audits. Such tests should also assign a risk score to each vulnerability to highlight which problems are the most severe.

2. Improve Awareness and Collaboration

As part of this risk identification process, critical infrastructure organizations should emphasize awareness and communication. It will be easier to stay on top of evolving cybercrime trends when everyone recognizes the issue and works together to address it.

Training all employees on the prevalence of cyberattacks and teaching them security best practices is a good start. Businesses should also collaborate with government agencies and security firms to share information on developing trends. Working with others in the sector to form industry-wide standards for secure operations will help, too.

Employees of all levels should also have the means to communicate potential vulnerabilities or attack attempts they’ve witnessed. Similarly, IT leaders should listen to workers’ concerns and experiences with company systems. This communication will foster faster security patching and ensure adaptability amid changing risk landscapes. 

3. Secure the IoT

One specific vulnerability to address is the Internet of Things (IoT). As manufacturing plants, energy grids and similar facilities have integrated more smart technologies, they’ve unintentionally expanded their attack surfaces. These devices also often lack strong built-in controls, making them prime targets for a critical infrastructure cyberattack.

IoT attacks grew from 56.95 million incidents in 2020 to over 112 million in 2022. Any organization using IoT solutions must not ignore that trend.

Better IoT protection starts with sourcing safer devices, which includes looking for those with secure update protocols, multi-factor authentication (MFA) support and data encryption. Businesses must also host these devices on separate networks from other, more sensitive systems and data to prevent lateral movement. Turning off unsafe defaults like automatic connections will also help.

4. Restrict Access Permissions

Critical infrastructure should also tighten its access permissions. All company networks, IoT systems and industrial machinery should follow the principle of least privilege — any user, device or program can only access what they need to work.

As businesses in these industries embrace Industry 4.0, they often increase the number of connections between devices and accounts. While that’s good for efficiency, more entities can serve as an entryway for hackers to access sensitive devices or data. Minimizing these permissions will leave attackers with fewer options, reducing the potential damage a single breach can cause.

Tighter access permissions are only effective when organizations have strong authentication measures, too. MFA is a must for all accounts, and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) is best where companies have the data to apply it. UEBA learns how each account and device normally acts to automatically spot suspicious behavior that may indicate a breach.

5. Employ Real-Time Monitoring

UEBA is not the only form of ongoing network monitoring businesses should implement. Given how damaging a critical infrastructure cyberattack can be, IT professionals must be able to spot them as soon as possible. That requires real-time surveillance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is essential in this area. While human teams can technically monitor networks, doing so around the clock requires substantial staffing numbers. Considering how the cybersecurity workforce is short 3.4 million workers, that’s hard to maintain. Automating the process instead offers a more viable solution.

AI applications to apply include UEBA, IoT monitoring and network breach detection and containment. Technologies like this will let critical infrastructure organizations stop and respond to suspicious activity in less time, preventing significant disruptions.

6. Ensure Reliable Backups

While prevention is essential, businesses in vulnerable industries must also recognize that they won’t stop everything. No system is perfect and an attack will likely slip through the cracks eventually. Consequently, sensitive infrastructure requires a proper backup and recovery plan to avoid worst-case scenarios amid an incident.

Companies must keep backups of all mission-critical data, encrypt them and store copies in a separate location from the primary versions. Similarly, facilities need backup equipment to maintain operations amid a disruption. These may include redundant power supplies, air-gapped production lines or physical fail-safes.

The teams running these systems should also create a formal plan for how to get backups online and restore normal operations. Communicating the plan clearly and rehearsing it on occasion will ensure everyone knows what to do when the time comes.

7. Embrace Ongoing Improvements

Finally, critical infrastructure organizations must recognize that cybersecurity is an ongoing process. What’s safe today may not be tomorrow, so teams must regularly review their security posture and seek to continually improve their defenses.

Industry leaders should consider the changing cybersecurity landscape at least once annually. These reviews are an excellent time to perform penetration testing or similar audits to identify new vulnerabilities. Even if teams don’t find any glaring weaknesses, they should look at new security tools to see if any provide improvements that may help in the future.

Businesses must think several years in advance to get ahead of emerging threats. Quantum computing may not be accessible to criminals yet, but the NIST has already outlined quantum-resistant encryption algorithms to protect against this risk. Jumping at opportunities like these helps prevent attacks instead of responding to past breaches.

Stopping a Critical Infrastructure Cyberattack Isn’t Easy

Critical infrastructure cyberattacks are a real and threatening possibility today. Organizations in sensitive industries must recognize and adapt to this trend. Protection may not be easy, but it is essential.

These seven steps provide a baseline for industrial cybersecurity, but teams should go above and beyond wherever possible. Given the risks, there’s no such thing as too safe.