What You Need to Know About Industrial Cybersecurity

There’s a dark side to the smarter industrial facility. The same systems that improve production quality and boost throughput by collecting reams of real-time data also open a door to the outside world—a world that had been largely shut until the widespread digitalization of Industry 4.0. While this tech transformation has largely been a positive, it has also made industrial facilities more susceptible to cyberattacks. 

In this month’s issue of Bytes & Insights, we’ll look at some of the greatest risks of a cyberattack, examine common vulnerabilities, and discuss best practices you can adopt to avoid disaster. 

What Can a Cyberattack Do to Your Business? 

Any vulnerability in your OT network or lapse in IT security could result in a cyberattack on your facility. Such an event can have devastating consequences. According to figures from IBM, the global average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88 million, and the average for U.S. companies is nearly double that at $9.36 million. These figures beg the question: what happens during a cyberattack that’s so damaging to a business? 

IP theft—Every successful business has something special that gives it a competitive edge: a product recipe, processing method, customer data, supply chain model, etc. In a cyberattack, criminals seek to gain access to this intellectual property and exploit it for their own gain by ransoming, selling to the highest bidder, or even applying to their own business model. 

Equipment or network downtime—All it takes for a factory to incur staggering losses is for the line to stop running. Cyberattacks on your OT can cause equipment to malfunction, shut down, or even become damaged. A production facility that can’t produce—even for a few hours—will lose millions in production value, material waste, overtime, and a myriad of indirect costs. Cloud service providers operate their data centers on the promise of 99.9% uptime or greater; just a single unplanned outage not only hurts the service provider, but every business and individual it serves. Blame may lie with the criminals who cause the outage, but ultimately, any downtime damages the customer experience and undermines trust in the service provider, which could result in lost revenue that impacts a business for years or even forces its closure. 

Data exposure—Gaining access to a network provides criminals with a wealth of information about your company, including employee records or customer accounts which hold personal information and financial details. Such information is critical to operations and could be held for ransom or used to perpetrate more crimes such as identity theft. Unfortunately, data breaches are increasingly common. According to Statista, U.S. data breaches have increased from 447 in 2012 to more than 3,200 in 2023. 

Byte: A cyberattack can have cascading effects for a business. These may manifest first as functional issues with OT before snowballing into financial losses and irreparable damage to the brand relationship you’ve worked hard to cultivate with your customers. 

A Threefold Approach to Network Safety 

The industry leaders designing and operating factories just 30 years ago could scarcely have imagined how far or how rapidly technology would advance—or how frequently their facilities would become targets of attacks. Industry figures reveal a swiftly growing problem: 

• Globally, there were 6.06 billion malware attacks in 2023 (Statista) 

• Three out of four organizations have experienced a cyberattack on their OT environment (ABI Research) 

• 39% of companies reported monthly attacks, 19% reported weekly attacks, and 8% reported daily attacks (ABI Research) 

• The manufacturing and tech sectors are the most frequent targets, accounting for 25.66% and 21.42% of all cyberattacks (NTT Data) 

A successful approach to this large-scale problem involves three coordinated phases: 

Identify Vulnerabilities 

For manufacturers, identifying network threats starts with better system integration and communication between IT and OT. When these elements share insights and collaborate to solve problems, you improve your operation’s security as well as its efficiency. 

Third-party cybersecurity partners play an important role in identifying and mitigating threats. A simple search query will generate dozens of providers from which to choose. Start with those that specialize in industrial cybersecurity. 

Sharing information with supply chain partners and other industry stakeholders is also an important component of cybersecurity. Not only is this good practice that makes you a better steward of your industry, but it also adds another layer of protection by shoring up the external vulnerabilities that are closest to your business. 

Invest in Solutions 

Cybersecurity efforts have a lot of ground to cover, so it takes a skilled team to mount an effective defense. Focus first on the areas where you’re most vulnerable: high-volume attacks like phishing and malware demand improvements to network tech as well as employee education. More surreptitious efforts like DNS tunneling may be somewhat less common but are no less damaging to your business. Whatever internal resources or third-party services you use, take a holistic approach to cybersecurity. 

Government regulation can also be an unlikely avenue toward investment in OT cybersecurity. Critical industries such as manufacturing and distribution are essential to any highly developed economy, so governments have a strong incentive to help companies defend against threats. 

Passing legislation and enacting new regulations that mandate stronger OT protections and levy significant fines for noncompliance can be just the push that many companies need to invest in cybersecurity. 

Update Regularly 

Cybersecurity isn’t an end-state, but a constant and adaptive process. Whether for financial, political, or more esoteric reasons, cybercriminals regard industrial environments as high-value targets worth pursuing. The same cybercriminals you thwart on Monday may be back on Thursday with a new angle. An attack only has to work once for criminals to hit a major payday, so expect them to throw the kitchen sink at you. Invest in security technology, stay apprised of the latest attack methods, and refine your strategy frequently. 

Byte: Cybersecurity requires a concerted, company-wide effort to identify and respond to threats. Solutions must be developed that meet the needs of IT and OT, and companies must be diligent in their implementation and agile as new vulnerabilities are discovered. 

Check out the complete article on gray.com to learn more. 

Machines’ Greatest Defenders 

According to Cybint, more than 95% of cyberattacks occurred after a human error left a business vulnerable. That’s a sobering statistic, but there’s a silver lining: humans can be educated, behaviors modified, and mistakes minimized. So how can the average worker protect themselves and their business? It starts with an understanding of the tools that cybercriminals use. 

• Direct messages—The classic phishing trifecta—email, text, and voice calls—is still a popular tactic for many cybercriminals to gain access to your device. A seemingly benign link or urgent message may in fact be an attempt to steal financial information, login credentials, or other information that could be used to access your company’s network. 

• Hacking—Hacking involves a direct attack to overwhelm or circumvent your system or network protections. Such an infiltration often involves hackers taking or restricting access to something of value for your business and demanding payment in exchange for restoring the affected systems. Examples include a distributed denial of service (DDoS), brute-force attack, or DNS tunneling. 

• AI—the use of artificial intelligence to produce fake but convincing content is quickly emerging as one of the most dangerous social engineering threats. This may include computer-generated photos, video, or even voice cloning to pose as a boss or coworker making a request for information.  

  So what can your people do to defend themselves, lower risk, and help your business not stand out as a target? 

• Browse safely—Stick with websites that you know and trust. If there’s a free tool or a deal that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

• Guard your inbox—Be judicious with the messages you get; ask your IT department to inspect questionable messages. If a request seems out of character for a coworker, follow up in person. 

• Use strong passwords—That kidname_birthday password you’ve been using isn’t exactly a headscratcher for hackers. We’re all guilty, but there’s no shortage of accessible tools to quickly create and store strong passwords that 1) you’ll never have to remember and 2) can’t be brute-forced by bad actors. 

• Don’t leave your computer or device unattended—This may seem obvious, but physical access to your device is a fast track to network access. 

• Don’t use public WiFi—Coffee shops, airport lounges, and hotels offer convenient Wi-Fi at the cost of increased exposure. Don’t conduct business in these places, as your behavior can be closely monitored without your knowledge. 

• Beware scam QR codes—We’ve been conditioned to scan QR codes without so much as a second thought. Consider the context the code is in, check the URL and don’t provide sensitive information. 

• Be skeptical—Ask questions like “Why am I getting this request?” “Why am I getting it now?” “Does this sound like the kind of thing Person X would say?”  “Am I being asked to handle something sensitive outside my responsibilities?” Your best defense against sophisticated threats is to not take messages or content at face value, especially when they involve unexpected or unusual requests. Confirm in person if possible, loop in your IT experts, and crosscheck questionable content by running a search of your own. 

Byte: The vast majority of cyberattacks are the result of human error, which means they are preventable. To get real results, devote real resources to educating, training, testing, and supporting your people with cybersecurity best practices and prevention tools.