5 cybersecurity must-dos for manufacturing plants
If you were busy grilling hamburgers this past weekend, you may have missed the news about meat-producing giant JBS becoming the latest large corporation to be hit by a cyberattack. According to news reports, the attack likely came from Russia, and it shut down nearly all of the company’s meat processing plants in the U.S. and Australia. Coming on the heels of the Colonial Pipeline attack and not too far behind the water treatment plant hack around the Super Bowl, and I think the message is extremely clear: Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the weak links in America’s infrastructure – and if you operate any kind of manufacturing plant, don’t lose any time shoring up your security. The criminals are clearly looking for victims.
Just like the Colonial Pipeline incident, the real-world ramifications of this type of incident could be striking. In this case, instead of disrupting the gas supply chain for half the country, the JBS attack could cause meat shortages on multiple continents, jack meat prices up for all consumers, and it will obviously impact JBS’ bottom line.
Whether you operate a food plant, a car plant, a water plant or a widget factory, there are some fundamentals that you should look at ASAP to avoid joining this sad but growing list.
Your software: Sadly, many manufacturing plants run on not only old software but straight-up outdated software. That water treatment plant was running a version of Windows that Microsoft doesn’t even support anymore. Make sure all of your software is up to date and is the most current version. That’s table stakes. Software nowadays is updated all the time due to new security risks, viruses, etc., so you have to make sure you are proactively updating your software all the time to keep up. Otherwise you’re just leaving the window open for the criminals to climb through.
Third-party apps: In addition to your primary software, you also must check your third-party apps and systems that are connected to your primary framework. A third-party app is another system that you give permission to access your primary one. It’s the system equivalent of logging into a website with your Facebook account – you are giving Facebook the ability to access whatever you are doing on that site. This is the same thing. Even if you keep your main software like Windows up to date, criminals can get into your system through a less-secure third-party system that is connected to it. And, if you’re wondering, that’s how that water plant got in trouble. (Read more about third-party apps here.)
Identity management: Uh oh – that’s an IT-sounding term, isn’t it? Identity management boils down to controlling all of the different “identities” in your system. Each employee has an employee ID or other identifier. That’s an identity. Each employee has an email account with a password. That’s an identity. Managing those identities is important. If you don’t do it well, you wind up with a bunch of old identities for people who are no longer with the company or identities that are no longer used. These are open invitations for criminals or even disgruntled former employees. Close those accounts down and audit regularly. (Read more about ID management here.)
Password management: Obviously passwords are important to protect, but many companies also do a terrible job of this. Make sure your passwords are protected, secured and not shared in non-secure ways like emailing them back and forth. Look at a password management tool like LastPass or Keeper Security if you can. Remember, a password-protected PDF is no good if you email it to someone along with the password to open it. (Read more about password protection here.)
Awareness: While there are certainly a number of ways a cybersecurity attack can happen due to external factors, the truth is that most cybersecurity incidents start because of the action or non-action of an employee. So educating your workforce about the importance of cybersecurity is crucial to having as strong of a defense as possible. Teach them about phishing and things like that, but also teach them about being proactively suspicious when things don’t seem right. That water treatment hack was caught almost immediately because an astute employee noticed odd activity and raised the flag immediately. Imagine if they hadn’t noticed or had ignored their internal warning bell. Some companies will not be that lucky. Make sure your employees understand why it’s important and what to do if they suspect something. Make sure you have a clear escalation plan for employees to follow.
So… regardless of what kind of facilities your company operates, remember you don’t have to operate a white-collar office to be the victim of this kind of crime. We’ve seen way too many examples recently to think these incidents are just flukes. The criminals are going after manufacturing facilities because they are vulnerable. Don’t make yourself an easy target.