Manufacturing Riskopolis

Supply Chain Risks:

Supply chain risks affect manufacturing organizations in two unique ways. First, a cyberattack can halt production, making it harder or impossible to continue operations and deliver products to the end client. This can lead to lost income, business interruption, extra expenses such as buying new machinery, setting up a new manufacturing plant, or finding alternative delivery methods. Additionally, it can result in a breach of legal obligations, leading to breach of contract assertions, data privacy breaches, and increased legal fees in defending against both tort and class action lawsuits. Second, one of your suppliers may suffer an attack and fail to meet many of the same obligations mentioned above. For example, a major aluminum producer fell victim to a cyberattack when attackers infiltrated the network through a compromised third-party vendor, a software supplier. The attack caused widespread production slowdowns and shutdowns at several plants, with the company estimating the financial impact to be around $70 million. It’s important to have a thorough vendor management program in place to ensure that your vendors take cybersecurity seriously to avoid potential lost income due to supplier issues.

Insider Threats:

Companies face both internal and external cyber threats. Some of the largest data breaches in history have been due to negative employee sentiment and intentional theft or release of sensitive corporate data. Actively tracking employee activity on their devices for high-risk usage can aid in mitigating the risk of insider threats. Implementing controls to detect these actions can further aid in this mitigation effort. In 2023, a large vehicle manufacturer suffered a data breach orchestrated by two former employees. The threat actors leaked sensitive personal data of 75,000 current and former employees, including names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers.

IoT Devices:

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a catch-all term that includes technology like Operational Technology (OT), Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and Information Technology (IT) connected to the internet. Utilizing OT/ICS devices, among other IoT devices, increases the attack surface of your enterprise. Due to the insecure nature of these devices, they can become the threat vector exploited to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Data Privacy and Compliance:

Manufacturing companies develop intellectual property through patents and product designs that, if stolen, can cause competitive disadvantages and loss of business due to reputational harm. A large car manufacturer made headlines for multiple cyberattacks in 2022, when the car manufacturer had to shut down 14 factories in Japan for over 24 hours after a virus infected a file server. Leveraging multi-factor authentication (MFA) and encrypting sensitive data at rest can mitigate the theft of valuable intellectual property.

POS Devices / PCI DSS:

Point-of-sale devices pose credit card-related risks for an organization. These devices can pose data breach risks as hackers may be able to access and steal sensitive information from the device, network, or connected storage systems. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a framework that can help address POS-related risks.

Human Error:

Human error is still one of the largest factors contributing to cyberattacks. Cyberattacks leveraging human kindness or inexperience are largely to blame for data breaches and ransomware deployment. Conducting frequent and thorough training sessions and regular phishing training can help educate staff about spotting red flags around cyber risks.

Legacy Systems:

Legacy systems can pose a multitude of cyber risks. Given their computing power is less than today’s demand and their potential inability to implement security controls, additional precautions need to be taken to ensure their security. Legacy systems should be segmented from any corporate networks, with firewalls that can review packets in transit and the strongest encryption possible. Additionally, backporting, a patching process, can help mitigate risks related to end-of-life software that would otherwise be vulnerable to exploitation.

Remote Work Vulnerabilities:

The rise of remote work introduces new security challenges. Employees' home networks may not have the same level of protection as a corporate network, increasing the attack surface. Providing clear security policies for remote work, outlining safe practices, deploying virtual private networks (VPNs) for secure remote access, and educating employees on securing their home networks and devices are some of the best practices to mitigate these risks.