(MNA) -- According to the Kaspersky research, which has been published by the Iran’s Maher Company, Iran industrial cyber systems have been infected with ransomware.

Among the 10 countries at the top of the list, Iran is in ninth place after Ukraine, Malaysia, Denmark, South Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Russia, Romania respectively, and followed by Australia.

Industrial control systems are considered to be the core of the control and supervision of critical infrastructure such as transmission and distribution networks, nuclear power plants, refineries, water networks and oil and gas factories, but due to the fact that these systems are outdated, much attention has not been paid to their security.

The survey also found that in the first half of 2017, among the 15 countries whose industrial control systems had been attacked, Iran ranked seventh.

In Kaspersky studies, the risks that industrial control systems face come from a number of sources, including states, terrorist groups, dissatisfied staff, problems, failures, natural disasters, as well as internal forces’ intentional acts.

According to the report, 500 industrial and transport companies from 50 countries have been subjected to commercial electronic threats.