119,000 ICS Devices Exposed: The Internet’s Hidden Infrastructure Risk

Daily Security Review

In this episode, we dive into a growing cybersecurity crisis: the exposure of Industrial Control Systems (ICS) on the public internet. These systems power our electric grids, water supplies, and industrial automation—but thousands are reachable online, often unsecured.

We explore how researchers are working to distinguish between real ICS devices and honeypots—decoys used to bait cyber attackers. You’ll learn about scanning tools like Shodan, techniques like lightweight fuzzing and TTL analysis, and how attackers and defenders are racing to outsmart each other.

We’ll also unpack the latest data: over 119,000 potentially real ICS hosts exposed as of April 2024, and more than 39,000 suspected honeypots deployed globally. From protocol fingerprinting to cloud-hosted traps like GridPot, we explore what’s real, what’s fake, and why it matters for national infrastructure.

If you're in cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, or just curious how close we are to a digital blackout, don’t miss this briefing.