49 percent of UK businesses surveyed are leaving themselves vulnerable to cyber attacks by having unknown devices on their network, new research for Forescout has revealed. These risks are recognised by CIOs and IT decision makers – the survey, conducted by Censuswide, found that 85 percent of CIOs and IT decision makers understand that a lack of visibility and control of the devices on their network poses a real risk to their security infrastructure – but control is proving difficult to achieve.
One challenge for UK businesses is the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) devices connecting to networks. 69 percent of organizations say they now have over 1,000 such devices, with one in five (19 percent) organizations stating that they have more than 10,000 connected devices on their network.
OT and IT convergence as a security challenge
The convergence of IT and OT can create security blind spots that leave organizations vulnerable. The majority (58 percent) of IT decision makers believe that having a centralised approach to IT and OT security will protect businesses against these vulnerabilities, yet only 49 percent have implemented such an approach within their own organization.
“Our latest research shows that, despite various new regulatory benchmarks and many notable attacks on industry giants in the past twelve months, UK businesses are still painfully unaware of the huge threat vector that connected devices present,” commented Myles Bray, vice president of EMEA, Forescout. “To properly protect themselves, it is imperative that organizations in the UK are able to not only identify, but also fully manage and control every single third-party device that accesses their network. One way in which they can achieve more comprehensive insights is by implementing a centralised management platform that can provide real-time device visibility and control for enterprises across all industries.”
