Fortunately, the food industry scored the lowest in reportable cyber attacks while the energy sector drew 41 percent of the total cyber incidents. Source: ICS-CERT/DHS

During fiscal year 2012 (October 1, 2011-September 30, 2012), cyber incidents in the food industry sector accounted for only 2.1 percent of all industry segments, according to the October/November/December 2012 edition of the ICS-CERT Monitor. The monthly newsletter is published by the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergence Response Team of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2012, ICS-CERT responded to a steady stream of cyber incidents, coordinated ICS vulnerabilities with vendors and produced alerts and advisories to notify the ICS community of emerging cyber risks.

ICS-CERT received and responded to 198 cyber incidents as reported by asset owners and industry partners in FY 2012. The energy sector recorded the highest number of the total incidents, representing 41 percent of the total. The response team found evidence of several intrusions to SCADA equipment, where attackers were looking for ways to take over the control of these systems.

Other affected industry segments included water with 29.15 percent of the total, commercial at 19.1 percent, Internet-facing organizations at 21.11 percent, and healthcare at 5.2 percent of the total. While the food and agriculture industry had the smallest number of threats, the industry should not sit back and relax. For more information, visit ICS-CERT’s website.