How Manufacturers Can Manage Increasing Cybersecurity Risks

Where is your factory vulnerable?

We understand how hard you have worked to build a secure factory and digital framework. We know the landscape has changed dramatically over the past ten years, and we get how hard it has been to sit with uncertainty throughout this process.

It’s one thing to acknowledge where you may have gaps.

It’s another to prioritize them.

Would you ever willingly choose to damage your factory’s critical infrastructure? Or one day decide to throw away millions of dollars in revenue? Of course not! However, as cyber attacks become more sophisticated and difficult to detect, the decision whether or not to prioritize security can be one that shuts down your entire factory without warning.

On the other hand, we can’t ignore the harsh reality—Manufacturing is one of the most aggressively targeted industries for cyber attacks.

You could spend countless efforts beefing up your access controls, and then suddenly lose everything because a hacker found their way in through a thermostat. Even if your factory is already taking extensive measures to prioritize security, one area of vulnerability is all it takes to cost your organization hundreds of millions of dollars. Aside from the monetary losses and legal ramifications, the aftermath of a breach often leaves manufacturing companies in a scramble to reconcile valuable relationships with customers. As we look at the dynamics of OT environments becoming more and more connected with all these devices and sensors, the need to come together with IT with this layered approach is critical in today’s world.

We are ready to help.

As we reflect on this year’s 15th annual Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we recognize the importance of bringing the manufacturing industry’s vulnerability to attention. Cisco understands that it’s much more than just security. As the leader in industrial security*, we are committed to helping you establish a reliable reputation with your customers. Ironclad is built into everything we develop so you can leverage IoT connected devices to become a market leader without comprising protection from evolving threats. We support the top Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS) protocols, such as Ethernet IP, Profinet, and CC-Link. Cisco technology helps reduce risks across all traffic—both unencrypted and encrypted—by helping you understand how, when, where, and why users and devices connect to your network. It’s no wonder manufacturers today feel that security can’t catch up with IoT. According to IDC, 75 percent of large manufacturers will update operations with Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and analytics by 2019.* With the convergence of IT and OT worlds, hackers can now reach industrial systems in ways very challenging to detect before it’s too late. If you want the robust, secure environment to address the dynamics today, you have to look at your environment through multiple lenses.

The time to act is now.

So how hacker-proof are you? Ready to put your security strategy to the test?

Take our Security Self-Assessment now!

Identify your areas of vulnerability and take the first steps toward building a comprehensive security strategy. At the end of the day, healthy paranoia is a good thing—Cisco stops 20 billion attacks every single day! Because if you do it right, a Wi-Fi network on the factory floor can help you reduce operational costs, enable factory mobility, and make crucial real-time decisions.

* IDC FutureScape Worldwide Manufacturing Industry 2017 Predictions. February 2017, Doc #US42303016.

* https://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/books/iot/iotEbook_digital.pdf