Accenture Report: Oil & Gas Companies’ Cybersecurity Strategies Are Evolving, But Monitoring & Responding Quickly to Cybera...
April 06 2017 - 7:59AM
Business Wire
Protecting Operational Technology is Key, But
Only 18 percent of Energy Companies Said They Could Identify
High-Value Security Assets and Business Processes for Better
Protection
Lacking enterprise-wide cyber analytics technology to monitor
for cyberattacks, most oil and gas companies are not fully aware of
when or even how cyberattacks might affect them, according to new
research from Accenture (NYSE: ACN).
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A majority (74 percent) of the 186 oil and gas company leaders
surveyed in Accenture’s High Performance Security 2016
Report said their organization is confident that cybersecurity
measures will yield valuable results. Indeed, more than
three-quarters believe their top strategies are now able to protect
their companies’ reputations, information and prevent service
disruption.
However, this is at odds with 60 percent of energy leaders who
said cybersecurity is a bit of a black box, as they don’t quite
understand the timing or impact of cyberattacks. When asked about
basic requirements to keep their company secure, energy leaders
were less confident than their counterparts in other industries in
their ability to measure the impact of breaches (40 percent
compared to 47 percent for the cross-industry average) and to know
their frequency (28 percent compared to 41 percent).
Oil and gas company leaders reported an average of 96
cyberattacks over 12 months, with one in three succeeding in a
breach that was discovered only 62 percent of the time by firms’
security teams. Even then, detection took months for 51 percent of
companies and weeks for 25 percent. The rest of the time, other
employees and law enforcement officials most often discovered the
breaches.
Oil and gas companies don’t have far to look to identify the
sources of most cyberattacks. Company leaders said breaches are
mostly from malicious company insiders (43 percent) or staff who
accidentally published information (23 percent). Hackers accounted
for 21 percent of attacks.
“Security does not end at the edge of the corporate network. It
includes both operational technology and back office systems across
the oil and gas value chain,” said Jim Guinn, managing director who
leads Accenture’s security practice for resources industries.
“Protecting core operations requires better investments in cyber
defense including network analytics, cyber incident management
programs that include both OT and IT networks, and ongoing testing
to help identify any gaps. With a more comprehensive cybersecurity
strategy that includes assets across the entire organization, oil
and gas companies can be better prepared when a cyber event
occurs.”
Executives identified the top effective tools for responding to
cyberattacks as internal cross-functional teams (41 percent),
standard operating procedures (37 percent), established
technologies (36 percent) and communications plans (34
percent).
Not surprisingly, with the rise of the Industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT) and the convergence of operational technology and
information technology, respondents cited the need to fill
cybersecurity gaps in end point / network security as their most
pressing concern (55 percent). They expressed low confidence (18
percent) in identifying high-value security assets and business
processes needed for better protection, and only 24 percent were
confident of their capabilities in cyberattack scenarios.
Accenture Security Index Results
The results of this survey were analyzed in collaboration with
Oxford Economics to develop the Accenture Security Index comparing
the relative strength of organizations to protect themselves from
cyberattacks. To gauge the effectiveness of current enterprise
security efforts and the adequacy of their existing investments,
Accenture surveyed 2,000 top enterprise security practitioners
representing companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more.
According to the recently released Accenture Security Index, oil
and gas organizations ranked second to last among cross-industry
evaluation of high-performance cybersecurity capabilities with an
overall ranking of 27 percent, meaning these organizations
exhibited high performance in only nine capabilities on average.
Additionally, oil and gas organizations ranked last in all
industries in the threat vector monitoring capability (22
percent).
For more information on steps oil and gas companies can take
to effectively deal with cyber threats,
visit: www.accenture.com/energycybersecurityreport.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched
experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries
and all business functions – underpinned by the world’s largest
delivery network – Accenture works at the intersection of business
and technology to help clients improve their performance and create
sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 401,000
people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives
innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us
at www.accenture.com.
About Accenture Security
Accenture Security helps organizations build
resilience from the inside out, so they can confidently
focus on innovation and growth. Leveraging its global network of
cybersecurity labs, deep industry understanding across client value
chains and services that span the security lifecycle, Accenture
protects organizations’ valuable assets, end-to-end. With services
that include strategy and risk management, cyber defense,
digital identity, application security and managed security,
Accenture enables businesses around the world to defend against
known sophisticated threats, and the unknown. Follow us
@AccentureSecure on Twitter or visit us at
www.accenture.com/security.
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AccentureGuy Cantwell, + 1
281-900-9089guy.cantwell@accenture.comorAccentureMatt Corser, +
44 755 784 9009matthew.corser@accenture.com
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