As ransomware attacks have increased in manufacturing, the operations world is staring down the dangers of cybersecurity gaps in smart factories. Meanwhile, the IT side of the house is starting to understand that what works well for them does not always work well for the operations side.
Ransomware targets manufacturers by disabling their operations technology. Hackers then demand that victims pay to restore the functionality of their systems. Manufacturers that cannot afford to have production halted by such attacks may have no choice but to pay the ransom. This trend has been growing steadily, and shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.
“For the last 10 years, I used to say I was an evangelist crying in the wilderness,” said Chuck Tommey, digital connectivity executive at Siemens. “Now we have people coming to us, asking what can we do about cybersecurity for our factories.”
Tommey is not alone in this observation. According to the recently released “State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production” report by Sophos, a UK-based IT security services and hardware provider, 55 percent of manufacturing and production organizations surveyed were hit by…
