Protecting your Company from Cyber-attacks

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In light of recent cyber-attacks, now more than ever is the time to evaluate whether you are taking the necessary steps to prevent attacks on your company and are prepared in the event that you do fall victim of an attack.

Unknown to many, manufacturers are actually a high risk for these attacks.  According to the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, “One-third of all cyber-attacks in 2015 targeted manufacturers, and that number is only getting larger as technology advances and cyber criminals become more savvy”.  They further note that manufacturers pose a particular risk because “most manufacturing systems today were made to be productive—they were not made to be secure.”

In light of these revelations, we have provided a few articles for your viewing that should aide in getting the conversation going about what measures your company needs to take to stay safe from potential attacks.

Some suggestions noted in these articles include:

  • Creating a vulnerability management plan that outlines regular scans of vulnerabilities and actionable processes in events of vulnerability exploits.
  • Where possible, harden security configurations of systems and servers.  According to Manufacturing Global “Malware requires administrative level privileges to execute on machines.  If an organization took these administrative privileges away, nearly 90% of infections on machines would stop – all via one fairly simple fix”.
  • Ensuring employees are aware of the risks specific to the company and informing them of their responsibilities in helping to mitigate these risks.

http://www.manufacturingglobal.com/technology/1105/Is-your-manufacturing-company-practicing-proactive-cybersecurity

http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/news/20170119-now-more-than-ever-manufacturing-needs-to-guard-against-cybersecurity-threats/

https://www.mbtmag.com/article/2016/01/biggest-cybersecurity-problems-facing-manufacturing-2016

If you would like additional information or to discuss the topics mentioned, please contact Marie Jett, CPA at 317-260-4472 or mjett@greenwaltcpas.com.