According to her research Kaspersky Lab, which was attended by 3.900 IT professionals from around the world, the security priorities of industrial and manufacturing businesses are fundamentally different than those of service businesses. Industries value (or undervalue) certain types of data differently, and even between different industries security priorities can vary significantly.
Specifically, the Kaspersky Lab survey categorized participants into 17 business sectors, which include – among others – manufacturing and industry energys & public utility. These industries stand out from the rest in terms of the design of their information networks (they cover industrial machines that are managed through highly specialized industrial software), and the security priorities for these networks are completely different. The results of the survey make the differences apparent.
- Copyright: At a rate of 21%, thefaceι του κλάδου μεταποίησης ανέφεραν απώλεια Πνευματικής Ιδιοκτησίας κατά τους τελευταίους 12 μήνες. Το ποσοστό αυτό είναι το πέμπτο υψηλότερο μεταξύ των συμμετεχόντων. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, ο κλάδος αυτός έχει αξιολογήσει την προστασία της πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας ως την πιο σημαντική προτεραιότητα ασφάλειας (17%). Αντιθέτως, το χαμηλότερο ποσοστό απώλειας πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας αναφέρθηκε από επιχειρήσεις του τομέα ενέργειας & κοινής ωφελείας. Μάλιστα, μεταξύ των 17 κλάδων που αξιολογήθηκαν, ο συγκεκριμένος τομέας απέδωσε τη χαμηλότερη σπουδαιότητα σε αυτή την προτεραιότητα.
- Business information: For the manufacturing sector the importance of data related to market and competition information is just average. On the other hand, the energy & utility sector has given them the greatest importance among all business sectors. However, relatively high rates of business data loss have been recorded in both sectors (24% for manufacturing and 23% for energy and utilities, the third and fourth highest respectively among the 17 research sectors).
- Informations Of customers: Neither the manufacturing sector, nor the energy & utility sector are particularly concerned about the loss of information related to their customers. This is justified by the fact that both sectors reported low rates of data theft compared to other business sectors. Specifically, 32% of participants from the manufacturing sector reported a loss of customer data, with this percentage being the third lowest among all sectors. The corresponding rate for the energy & utility sector was 22% and was the lowest of all.
- Informations Internal Operation: Both in the manufacturing and in the energy & utility sector, there is particular concern about the loss of data on their operation (eg business process details). Nearly half of the companies in these two sectors reported a loss of similar information in the previous 12 months (46% for manufacturing and 45% for energy and utilities).
The above data show radically different approaches to security. Corporate security policies focus on data protection, while industry focuses on protecting processes. The survey data shows that industrial enterprises place a high value on the security of internal processes and that the security of customer data is not a factor of concern for them.
However, these data also show that an industry's top concern may be of little importance for another (eg the importance attributed to Intellectual Property). For example, the Kaspersky Lab survey found that 31% of manufacturing businesses believe it is targeting digital attacks. This was the second highest rate among all sectors (behind only financial services). At the same time, the energy & utilities sector does not seem to share this concern, with the corresponding rates hovering below average.
It is clear that information networks and priorities for the safety of industrial enterprises require the adoption of a different strategy that meets their needs. Nowadays, the need for advanced industrial safety is more imperative than ever, as sophisticated malware, such as Wiper and Shamoon, target industrial enterprises, causing millions of damage.
In Critical Infrastructure Protection & Industrial Security Business Center Kaspersky Lab has additional information on the industry's approach to industrial safety, as well as a whitepaper summarizing the industry security challenges. Also, in Kaspersky Business Blog attack analyzes are available maliciousυ software against industrial enterprises.
