In today’s business environment, organizations face numerous pressures and disruptions, with the possibility of a cybersecurity attack a threat that’s undoubtedly top of mind. Cybersecurity is a business risk that every organization should be planning for because it’s not a matter of if, but when you’ll be targeted by a threat actor.
Manufacturing operations are particularly enticing to threat actors because of the amount of damage that can be done. Using ransomware, a threat actor can get into a manufacturing operation’s system and completely shut down production. This naturally results in panic and chaos and the threat actor will use those emotions to their advantage – they’ll typically require a large fee to unlock the systems and regain control.
As a business leader, you may feel unsure about how best to address these vulnerabilities. Jessica Dore, principal of technology risk management, shares the steps you can start taking to protect your organization from threat actors and to learn how to ease the sting if you do unfortunately find yourself in a vulnerable situation.
Understand – and plan for – the risks. A great first step is to look at your organization and ask, “Do we have programs and plans in place if a threat actor gets in?” If not, you’ll need to create both an information security governance program and an incident response plan. An information security governance program determines who is authorized to make decisions and ensures security strategies are aligned with business objectives and consistent with regulations. Once you determine your decision makers and you determine your strategies, the incident response plan informs the actionable steps required to recover from a cybersecurity event.
Staying on top of software patches is also extremely important. Holes in your software are low-hanging fruit and hackers know to look for them. If a patch in your software is needed, the software manufacturer will release patch updates to all users of that software. Keeping up to date on these patches could be the difference in whether a hacker can get into your systems or not.
Have a backup strategy. No matter how well you plan and stay on top of your cybersecurity environment, a threat actor may still get in. This is why having a backup plan is important. It’s critical that you have your backup systems on a media that is disconnected from the network that you use for regular operations – this is called air gapping. Hackers know to look for backups and if you keep yours on the same connected network, they will almost always attack the backups first. Make sure your backup plan is well thought out and regularly tested.
A business continuity plan should also be in place to ensure that you can sustain operations in the event of a breach. As a manufacturing operation, your reputation, along with the ability to maintain your production and fulfill orders for your clients, is everything. Systematically look at your business and understand what processes are the most critical to sustaining production. With a good business continuity plan in place, you should be able to be up and running within 24-48 hours of a cybersecurity event.
