As manufacturers innovate, cyberattackers are innovating, too. Your business is already a tempting target for cybercriminals, but as you integrate new IT and OT technologies, you risk broadening your attack surface for cybercriminals even more.

Manufacturing is the most attacked industry globally.¹ And when attacks on manufacturers interfere with production processes, reputational damage and financial penalties and costs aren’t the only risk. Public safety and the safety of your facilities and workforce could be compromised, too.

Here are some types of attack a manufacturer could face:

• Ransomware: IP and trade secrets are held hostage by cybercriminals until a ransom is paid
• Phishing: A fraudulent email or website is used to trick your workers into compromising their data or devices
• Man-in-the-middle attacks: Hackers intercept and manipulate your workers, tricking them into sharing files and information with them instead of their colleagues

By investing in the right security technology, you can simplify, enhance and automate security across your business to help keep your operations running and better protect your data.

Help your cybersecurity teams understand their estate.

In order to protect your business, and understand where to invest, you need to know what you’re working with. When we're talking to manufacturers about security transformation, they often say that understanding their estate is a barrier to change. That’s why manufacturers must prioritise investing in tools that give them thorough visibility over their entire infrastructure. By understanding the potential threats, you can make more informed decisions and enhance your defensive measures.

There are solutions that can help provide your cybersecurity teams with the visibility they need. Cyber risk assessments performed by your network partner evaluate your current cybersecurity posture. This includes identifying vulnerabilities, assessing risks and providing recommendations for strengthening security measures.

The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is an authoritative source of cybersecurity breach information. Each year, the DBIR team analyses tens of thousands of incidents and breaches from around the world. They identify cybersecurity trends and help organisations take a data-driven approach to optimising their cybersecurity programs.

Partner with the experts.

Partnering with the right cybersecurity solution providers can go a long way in helping your business in each stage of ensuring the necessary protection.

A good illustration of the stages of a cybersecurity risk management strategy is the NIST framework, with the sections as follows:²

• Identify
• Protect
• Detect
• Respond
• Recover

Each stage is vital to the success of a business, and with the expertise of partners you can ensure your cybersecurity solutions are up to the task.

Threat intelligence services offer near  real-time insights into emerging cybersecurity threats. Manufacturers can use the insights provided to proactively adjust their cybersecurity strategies and defences. 

Tackle threats that stem from internal complacency and ignorance with security awareness training for your workforce. Educated employees are better equipped to recognise and mitigate security threats. By partnering with network providers to facilitate these programs, you can help reduce the number of security breaches stemming from uninformed and non-malicious sources.

When breaches do happen, having robust response and recovery strategies is essential. With incident response and forensics analysis provided by network partners, you can be provided with insights into the breach, including root cause. These forensics can also be provided to law enforcement to assist in investigations and to cybersecurity teams to help prevent future incidents. 

Simplifying solutions and leveraging automation has a critical role to play in easing the burden on the internal team. But most companies still choose to rely on third-party help. External partners can do much more than provide staff augmentation. They can provide expertise and share experience gained from tackling a wide-range of security challenges. The right partner can help you turn security into a competitive advantage, by creating a robust environment that enables innovation and allows you to focus on what differentiates your business.

Verizon has vast experience helping manufacturers solve some of their biggest challenges. We have decades of relevant experience, which enables us to provide practical and effective advice. Our global network, computing and security ecosystem can help you manage risks of transformation, accelerate change and better achieve the promise of digital technologies.