CATA Alliance Launches Cybersecurity 4.0 Study in Manufacturing and Critical Infrastructure

Montreal, December 03, 2018 --- Incidents of cybercrime and the negative impacts felt in the financial and retail sectors are well known and well documented, as they result in hundreds of millions in financial losses and compromised consumer data. Now, however, focus is shifting to the vulnerability of manufacturing and critical infrastructure, attacks on which could severely impact human life.

To measure the impact of this new phenomenon – Industry 4.0 and physical cybercrime – the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA) has launched a major Cybersecurity 4.0 study. This threat has implications for cybersecurity, as Richard Wunderlich, Director of Smart Grid Initiatives at Siemens Canada, points out: "The need to protect critical infrastructure has given rise to new priorities. It's no longer just about protecting data, network integrity, or privacy, but about the availability of the infrastructure itself”.

Today’s automated plant environment is more agile and more efficient than ever before, but it is also more vulnerable than ever before, due to physical cybercrime. More than 70% of manufacturing companies in Canada are automated and a growing number of these companies are interconnecting their automated equipment with their information systems to extract big data and control production in real time.

Critical infrastructure is in a similar position. As critical systems are being connected to the Internet, small groups of hackers with political, militaristic, or economic goals, have seized the opportunities to pose a serious threat to national critical infrastructure. No longer content to attack just the information systems, they are now targeting industrial and electrical equipment and infrastructure. Cybercrime is changing in nature to become physical.

Mr. Jean-Guy Rens, vice president of the CATA Alliance and project manager explains that critical infrastructure will receive special attention: "Large public service companies have been the first targets of physical cybercrime. As such, they play a pioneering role in the development of security measures. The goal of our initiative is to provide manufacturing SMEs with the experience they have gained in infrastructure."

Mr. Tyson Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of CyberNB explains, “Critical Infrastructure, as the name implies, is Canada’s critical front line in the event of a physical or virtual attack. For organizations mandated to protect critical Infrastructure, security is at the very heart of the operational mandate. With critical Infrastructure, it is the daily operation of society that is at stake. Just consider the consequences of an extended power loss for a given population.”

This initiative was developed through the cooperation of three partners: Ministry of Economy and Innovation of Quebec, Siemens Canada and CyberNB.

The CATA Alliance study is based on three sources: a survey of companies that have already automated their production; a workshop with industry representatives; and customized interviews of leaders in cybersecurity from the public sector, private enterprise, industry, community and university. The results of this study will be made public in mid-2019.

Media Contacts: Huguette Guilhaumon, Sciencetech /Alliance CATA – huguette@sciencetech.com – (514) 656-3254