Manufacturing IT security still very far from in the bag
1 min read
Only two-thirds of manufacturers in Europe are confident that their information is protected from external and internal attacks, according to research by IDC Manufacturing Insights.
The analyst's most recent survey, conducted across Europe, also finds that more than 50% of respondents are unaware of the number and nature of security events their organisation has encountered in the past 12 months.
Interestingly, its report 'Business strategy: know your enemies' finds that, among the top three security threats faced by manufacturers, the greatest is perceived to be employee error or accidental loss of sensitive information.
Meanwhile, top current security initiatives include antivirus, followed by firewalls. However, IDC finds that, in the absence of policies and procedures for preventing data loss, employees usually have access rights to information and systems far in excess of their requirements.
Pierfrancesco Manenti, EMEA research director, IDC Manufacturing Insights, believes that this issue is fast becoming important, as manufacturers increasingly work on over-extended supply chains, dealing with multiple partners and suppliers.
He advises manufacturers to balance the need for multilevel structured and unstructured information sharing with IP protection and process safety, as that may present a major challenge in the future.
"Manufacturers need to prepare themselves better against threats from a new breed of information technology tools," states Manenti. "In particular, attention needs to be focused on plant floor security, cloud computing, web 2.0 technologies and mobile applications."
And he continues "The survey shows that over 31% of surveyed manufacturers believe that security risk on the plant floor will increase over the next two years, as vulnerability to cyber attacks increases."
Reassuringly, Manenti says that more than half of manufacturers have already, or are planning to change the priority assigned to their plant floor security efforts over the next 12 months. But the situation with Web 2.0 technologies is very different.
"Only one-third of EMEA manufacturers have implemented technologies or put in place policies to deal with Web 2.0 interactions, including blogs or social networks."
