In Belgium, there are an estimated 5,000 industrial manufacturing companies. Of these, a good 60% have made the step to Industry 4.0. Manufacturing companies are investing increasingly in smart operational technologies (OT), connected machines and robots to improve their production processes. However, this Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is also increasingly in the sights of cybercriminals. In an international survey by Fortinet, 58% of large industrial companies said they had to deal with a security breach in the past year.
with a security breach on their OT systems.
What is the state of cyber security for manufacturing companies in Belgium?
To get a good picture our member organizations Agoria/Sirris & HOWEST/UGent organized a survey among 77 Belgian manufacturing companies at the end of 2020. It was a bit of a shock when they established that 30% of the critical hardware components and corresponding operating systems were more than ten years old. Moreover, companies hardly ever carry out updates. As a result, the production environment is up for grabs by cybercriminals. And when things go wrong, it appears that only one in four of the respondents has a good disaster plan that covers both the IT and the OT environment.
Cutting off the production environment from the outside world is not the solution. However, in their survey a clear leading group emerged. This 10% of the interviewed companies shows how to operate cyber-safe and are an inspiration to other companies. Based on the survey results and other factors, ten recommendations to help companies on their journey to embracing Industrie 4.0 in a cyber-safe way!
