Industrial Cybersecurity: An Imperative for Digitalised and Connected Automation

Industrial Cybersecurity: An Imperative for Digitalised and Connected Automation

As the world becomes more digital and connected, the threat of cyber-attacks grows with it. This is an obvious vulnerability. Therefore, it is important to understand it and make provisions. The work to prioritise assets and risks, evaluate controls and develop remediation plans can be a tedious, labour-intensive affair. Specialists must review thousands of risks and controls and then make ratings based on individual judgement. Some organisations mistakenly approach this work as a compliance exercise rather than a crucial and mandatory business process. Without prioritisation, however, the organisation will struggle to deploy resources effectively to reduce cybersecurity risk. Financial considerations may turn board members off from the need to invest in these safety measures if they aren’t aware of the implications it can have.

All data and systems are not created equal. In any organisation, some of the data, systems and applications are more important than others. Some are more exposed to cyber-risks, and others are more likely to be hacked into. Critical assets and sensitivity levels also vary widely across sectors. For manufacturing systems, for example, the most sensitive asset is typically production control and information systems. Some other data such as corporate social responsibility programmes and their funding may even be publicly available. Risks to critical data include breach, theft and ransomware attacks. In the last few years, several manufacturing organisations have had to shell out a ransom to hackers that had seized control of their manufacturing systems. In similar incidents, a few oil and gas operating companies were brought to their knees by cyber-attacks that incapacitated their production and financial systems.3 Each industry has specific needs and unique priorities. An oil and gas operating company needs to protect its hazardous operations and safely run its complex chemical processes. Any attack on its operations and transactions systems can compromise its entire business. An aerospace-systems manufacturer needs to protect intellectual property as well as system designs and process methodologies. A financial services company requires few controls for its marketing materials but is vulnerable to fraudulent transactions; its consumer and M&A database, furthermore, will need the best protection money can buy. Attackers can be individuals or organisations, such as criminal syndicates or governments with significant resources at their command. The attacks can be simple or sophisticated, the objectives varying from immediate financial reward to competitive or even geopolitical advantage.

Automation systems today, and in the future, need to pay special attention to these details and require specialised industrial cybersecurity protection to avoid attacks. Automation providers must continuously upgrade and enhance their systems and software to help their industrial manufacturing customers to manage vulnerabilities. Once these vulnerabilities are identified and addressed with a properly strategised and supported industrial cybersecurity cover, the full potential and benefits of connected automation and its associated IIoT ecosystem can be realised.