Executives do not view cyber security as a serious problem, mainly because in the UK there is currently no legal obligation to declare that a business has fallen victim to a cyber-attack. However, that does not mean that you should not protect your manufacturing business from potential future attacks.
A comprehensive Threat Risk Assessments is available and it helps leaders understand how much of a target their organisation and data is, where the risks lie, and the corporate cyber security strategy they should adopt.
Without such guidance, a business can easily invest a lot of time and resource into shoring up protection in the wrong areas, or even the right area but leave openings elsewhere, said Mark McCormick, an industrial IT security engineering consultant at Siemens UK.
Being safe means being aware of your organisationâs infrastructure: Everything needs to be viewed as unknown and untrusted, rather than assuming everything inside your organisation is simply âtrusted by defaultâ.
As long as your devices are communicating with each other and an on premise or remote cloud-based platform is used, then information will flow between them via the internet. This exchange is a source of concern for many organisations; therefore technology providers should better educate the sector and offer executives greater trust and confidence.
McCormick suggests that one of the most beneficial steps manufacturers can take is to break down entrenched business siloes, particularly those which separate IT from the rest of the organisation.
Information has to flow freely through an organisation in order to become as efficient and productive as possible, as well as offer a superior customer experience, he said. Blurring the line between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) can create genuine competitive advantage.
Mindsphere, Siemensâ could-based, open Internet of Things platform, is a solution that offers manufacturers cyber security. It offers the secure connection of assets, enterprise applications and legacy databases with hardware or software connectivity solutions, enabling you to run data analytics and make smarter, faster decisions.
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