According to a recent McAfee survey report, written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), cyber-attacks are increasingly being used as a strategic weapon by governments as well as political organizations.

In its report, titled “In the Crossfire: Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Cyber War,” McAfee has noted that its survey of 600 IT security executives in utility companies, banks, and oil refineries, has revealed that ‘critical infrastructure enterprises worldwide’ are apparently under a constant threat of cyber-attacks – typically a distributed denial of service (DDoS) - as well as extortion related to the attacks.

As per the surveyed executives, nearly 54 percent of the ‘critical infrastructure’ companies have already been attacked, largely by “organized crime-gangs, terrorists, or nation-states.”

While merely one-fifth of executives opined that their existing systems are secure; one-third believed that budget cuts have made the present scenario even worse in terms of vulnerability, vis-à-vis a year-back situation.

Commenting on the findings of the survey, Joris Evers, a security specialist at McAfee, elaborated that, in the opinion of most of the respondents, “there is a government sponsor behind the attacks on critical infrastructure in their country.”

Evers further added: “We believe that governments around the world are building up their offensive security capabilities. Cyber is part of the arsenal governmental, political, and terrorist organizations want to have at their disposal.”