A technician removes existing control wires in a SCADA cabinet in preparation for relocation. Officials from CISA announced a new initiative to fight firmware vulnerabilities lying beneath the surface of the operating system. (MTA Capital Construction Mega Projects/CC BY 2.0/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en) Officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced a new initiative to fight firmware vulnerabilities at the RSA Conference Wednesday afternoon. For years, security personnel have been content to largely ignore the horrors lying beneath the surface of the OS, seeing firmware-based attacks as exotic and high-end. But firmware attacks are on the rise. A Microsoft study found that while only 29% of organizations were budgeted to defend against firmware attacks despite 80% seeing one in the past year.