Rise of Disruptionware: Inside Forescout’s Latest Joint Report with Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT)

Ryan Brichant | September 23, 2019
“Disrupting” traditional business models might be hot talk for start-ups pitching investors, but in the world of manufacturing, transportation, energy and similar sectors, real “disruption” of production and facilities due to cyberattacks can have devastating safety and financial consequences.
The old concepts of malware wreaking havoc in a system for monetary gain are still present, but a new breed of attacks that we call “disruptionware” is wreaking havoc in networked industrial control system (ICS) and operational technologies (OT) environments. These attacks are becoming increasingly consequential for the operator community because of the immediate disruption to operations and the potential safety impact to employees.
A joint report with Forescout and the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), a cybersecurity think tank in Washington, D.C. digs into this concerning trend. The report titled “The Rise of Disruptionware: A Study on How Disruptionware Like LockerGoga Significantly Impacts Critical Infrastructure” examines the attack patterns targeting critical industry sectors like manufacturing, including ransomware, disk-wiping malware and similarly disruptive malicious code.
Here are some of the key highlights and the immediate reasons why we feel this study is important:
Modernizing the Shop Floor but Forgetting Cybersecurity
“Disruptionware” is More than Just a Nuisance
Recommendations to Improve Resiliency
We see many of these challenges firsthand at Forescout because we support many of the world’s largest ICS and OT-dependent organizations. Our team understands that in the world of pipelines, factories and power plants, digital hazards consist of much more than just malicious intruders – any type of outage or disruption, even if due to false-positives or errors, still causes harm. But there is common ground that can be found under security and modernization as these disruption-sensitive industries push toward new software and connectivity technologies.
I am pleased to count ICIT among the community of research, public policy and other forums Forescout encourages to drive awareness and discussion of cyber risk issues driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) – more specifically the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for this report’s stakeholders. I encourage you to download the report and share your feedback.
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