"What we are learning is the smart grid is not so smart," said Dr. Phyllis Schneck, vice president and chief technology officer for public sector, McAfee. "In the past year, we've seen arguably one of the most sophisticated forms of malware in Stuxnet, which was specifically designed to sabotage IT systems of critical infrastructures. The fact is that most critical infrastructure systems are not designed with cyber security in mind, and organisations need to implement stronger network controls, to avoid being vulnerable to cyber attacks."

Stuxnet has been dubbed by the IT security industry as one of the first cyber security super weapons.

Aside from Stuxnet, denial of service attacks (DDoS) are also prevalent. Some 80 per cent of respondents said they have noticed a "large-scale" DDoS attack in their networks while a quarter of the respondents noted weekly and even daily DDoS attacks.

Geography-wise, infrastructure owners in China, Italy and Japan are the most security-conscious among the study respondents. China and Japan have the highest confidence levels as they have the appropriate laws to protect organisations from cyber security threats. In contrast, Brazil, France and Mexico are lagging behind in implementing security measures.