Emerging Cyber Risks Threaten Companies as Global Digital Shift Accelerates

Summary

• Growing Attack Surface: Connecting factory and utility systems to IT networks creates new openings for attackers.
• Key Findings from TXOne Networks Report: The OT security vendor reports rising threats to operational technology (OT) environments.
• Emerging Threat Actors and Techniques: Attackers adapt phishing and ransomware to industrial targets.
• Sector-Specific Challenges: Manufacturing and energy face the most pressure, along with healthcare.
• Call to Action: TXOne urges stronger controls designed for OT.

Digital factories, new openings

Plants and utilities are connecting more of their machines to networks to gain efficiency, and so are hospitals. Each new connection is another way in. A report from TXOne Networks, which sells security products for industrial systems, describes how that shift is widening the risks companies face.

What the TXOne Networks report found

The report’s main finding is that operational technology is more exposed than it used to be. These systems run production lines and power plants. Most were never designed to sit on a network, and TXOne says the speed of digital projects is now outrunning security teams’ ability to protect them.

It also finds that many companies lack security programs built for OT. That gap hurts most where an incident can stop production or create safety hazards.

How attackers get in

Attackers go where defenses are thin. As plants rely more on networked systems, criminals use phishing and ransomware, while advanced persistent threat (APT) groups run long intrusions tailored to one industry.

TXOne says attackers mix old methods with new ones. Its advice is to invest in detection and response that understands industrial protocols and devices.

Sectors under the most pressure

Not every industry is equally ready. The report singles out manufacturing and energy, plus healthcare. In hospitals, security teams have to protect patient records and also keep life-critical equipment running, which limits when systems can be patched or taken offline for maintenance. Downtime is not an option.

Manufacturing and energy have the same tension between IT and OT. Older control systems often cannot be updated, so TXOne recommends controls designed for each industry rather than generic IT tools.

What companies can do

TXOne’s findings point to a simple priority for companies in the middle of digital projects: count security as part of the project from the start, not as a cleanup job later. That means inventories of connected devices, network segmentation between IT and OT, and staff who understand both.

Companies that build those basics in early will find it easier to adopt new technology without taking on new risk.

Frank Jones, CISSP

Frank Jones has loved computers from the age of 13. Frank got his hacking career started when he downloaded a war dialing program that he used to detect dial up modems in his hometown of Chicago. Frank Jones now works as a JAVA coder and cyber security researcher.