Van de Giessen added: “The boundaries
between IT and OT are blurring.
“We know that although the 2017
WannaCry ransomware and NotPetya
malware attacks – which crippled many
organisations in Europe and the US in the
space of two months – did not specifically
target industrial networks, they did reach
them. The incidents raised the profile of how
malware can move to ICS environments, and
made the world aware that if threat actors
wanted to launch a ransomware attack on
industrial networks, they clearly could.
“After jumping from one computer to
others and then racing across the globe, the
NotPetya worm damaged far more systems
and networks than its original Ukrainian
This partnership will
enable Indegy to
rapidly penetrate and
build market share in
South Africa.
targets, for example crippling hospitals in
Pennsylvania, US; halting TNT Express in
Europe; and freezing global shipping giant
Maersk’s systems for more than a week.”
When hackers caused a first-of-its-
kind cyber-attack in western Ukraine in
December 2015, cutting off the lights to
225,000 people, this was widely regarded as
being the first example of hackers shutting
off critical energy systems that supplied
hundreds of thousands of homes. This attack
was followed a year later by another attack
that cut power to hundreds of thousands of
residents in the country’s capital, Kiev.
“These kinds of attacks show
how vulnerable unprotected critical
infrastructure systems can be today,” said
Van de Giessen.
“As a distributor of best-of-breed
technologies, which are carefully selected
to complement each other as well as
provide solutions where there may be gaps
in the market, Networks Unlimited Africa
offers its customers true business and
security benefits.
“In South Africa, security conversations
have traditionally centred on the possible
theft of intellectual property and personal
data. Today however, we urgently need
to add in thinking around the defences
of industrial control systems and critical
infrastructure. The stakes could be very high
for those who do not.”
As a distributor
of best-of-breed
technologies . . .
Networks Unlimited
Africa offers its
customers true
business and security
benefits.
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