Implementing reliable security across increasingly complex company networks has become a daunting task for IT teams in the manufacturing sector. Malicious hackers are constantly coming up with newer and nastier ways to infiltrate even the smartest industrial technologies. According to recent research from IBM, destructive cyberattacks capable of rendering victim systems inoperable doubled in the first half of 2019 (versus the second half of 2018), and 50% of affected organizations were in the manufacturing sector.
WatchGuard Senior Security Analyst Marc Laliberte addressed these threats in a recent guest column for Manufacturing AUTOMATION, in which he outlines four danger zones in the industrial space that hackers are targeting and what IT professionals can do to secure them. Here’s an excerpt:
Intellectual property at risk.
Intellectual property (IP) theft continues to be a major threat for businesses in the manufacturing sector. Production and manufacturing process documentation is extremely high-value data for industrial companies. Losing precious IP to competitors or hackers can result in serious financial and reputational damage. In order to protect the bottom line and avoid losing customers, manufacturing organizations need to make IP security a top priority.
For IT teams at industrial organizations, deploying a multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution is an essential step in securing access to critical network data.
Read the full article in Manufacturing AUTOMATION or in their November/December 2019 digital issue to learn more about all four of Marc’s industrial security danger zones and protections. For more security news, analysis and best practices, keep an eye on Secplicity, and be sure to sign up for the Secplicity Email Newsletter to get the latest updates delivered straight to your inbox.