Why Manufacturers Should Consider IBM QRadar for Advanced Cyber Threat Protection?

Manufacturing is one of those oldest sectors which has evolved extensively with time. With the industrial revolution in the last century, the number of manual tasks decreased and were replaced with machines, robotics, and so on. Over the last five decades, digitization picked up and most mundane tasks were automated. Electronic systems and automation has certainly changed the way the manufacturing sector functions at large. However, it also got a set of risks and cyber threats such as data theft and more. This created the need for cyber protection systems to prevent loss of production data, money, and more. Over the years, technology to prevent cyber threats has evolved too, and can tackle all sorts of online frauds, process theft, and so on in the manufacturing sector. IBM QRadar SIEM offer many such threat protection features. This post discusses how advanced cyber threat protection systems function, and why manufacturers of diverse products may want to adopt it.
 

An Overview of Cyber Crime Threats and the Need for Prevention

The merger of IT and electronics with operations has yielded some amazing results in terms of increased production, reduced downtime, reduced time to market, and increased revenue. However, with automation and digitization, cybercrimes have increased too and must be prevented at all costs. Hence, the demand for cyber security packages is quite high among manufacturers across industries. Most manufacturer adopt and implement SCADA, industrial control systems, temperature and pressure control systems, and so on, depending on their application requirement. Since all of these systems are connected to the internet as well as private business networks they are exposed to a huge web landscape making them vulnerable to hackers, fraudsters, spammers, and so on. While most manufacturers have some or other protection systems that may not be enough as hackers and data thieves are way too ahead in terms of using advanced technologies for theft. So, a real-time protection package which issues such as alerts in minutes has become a necessity. Also, remote access control and monitoring of such systems has been heavily implemented since the pandemic. While this has saved losses and downtime, it has increased security threats. With cyber theft, a lot is at stake, including the credibility of a business, and no one would want to compromise on this and many other aspects. This is why a robust protection package is crucial.
 

Statistical Data on Cyber Crimes in the Manufacturing Sector

With a high-speed and seamless connectivity between manufacturing units, warehousing, offices of a company, there is always a threat of theft and data breaches. Hacking and data breaches have become increasingly common in smart handheld devices with remote access features. The data released by various organizations reveals the same. Here are some pointers regarding the same.

• A report by Kaspersky states that 77% of manufacturers rank cybersecurity as a priority.
• Almost 620 data breach cases were reported in 2017 by manufacturing companies in the US alone. This number has only gone up by 2021, and this is an alarming situation for companies.
• A study by National Cybersecurity Alliance shows that 10% of small businesses that faced data breach were shut down by the end of 2019.
• In 2016, whaling attack was carried out on a company with big aviation clients, and millions of dollars were stolen through email exchange.
• In 2020, Verizon noted that more than 73% cyber-attacks were carried out due to financial reasons, with almost 75% of the cyber thieves being external entities not connected to the company.

 

Types of Cyber Attacks in the Manufacturing Industry

These are some of the common types of cyber-attacks the manufacturing industry has confronted.

• Phishing: This attack fetches confidential customer information, important data, and even money withdrawals from accounts, OTPs and fixed passwords, and more.
• Ransomware: Companies which store information only at a local level are vulnerable to ransomware attacks from hackers. This malware gets downloaded in the system in an encrypted form, and happens by clicking links on malicious email ids and websites.
• Theft of intellectual property: This can be done through downloading a malicious code or software, and is a big concern in manufacturing companies with patented products, and so on.
• Supply Chain Attacks: This is the most common type of cyber-attack faced by companies today. In this attack, cyber attackers focus on multiple groups within an organization. Most manufacturing companies are vulnerable to this type of attack due to their scattered supply lines and weak security systems. Generally, hackers hack into a company’s supply chain through their vendor or partner networks. Solar Winds Attack was one such notorious supply chain attack that was reported in May 2021.
• Equipment Sabotage: Operational Technology (OT) is widely embraced by manufacturers owing to benefits it offer. OT devices are linked to modern communication systems, which makes them vulnerable to cyber attackers. Stuxnet and Triton are two notorious malware that were in news for equipment sabotage in 2010 and 2017.  

 
All these forms of cyber-attacks are driving manufacturers to take advanced cyber threat protection seriously. This is where IBM QRadar SIEM can make a difference. The next section discusses why IBM QRadar SIEM is popular with manufacturers.
 
 
Know Why IBM QRadar SIEM is The Best Advanced Cyber Threat Protection for the Manufacturing Industry
Safeguarded IT systems offer seamless connectivity and increase productivity and more. Implementing IBM’s QRadar SIEM help manufacturing companies mitigate cyber threats of all forms. Here are some of its features.

• The IBM QRadar SIEM identifies threats in real time and issues alerts.
• QRadar through its incident forensics quickly senses anomalous communications as well as connection patterns, data coming in the form of emails or messages from malicious sites and processes, and so on.
• QRadar works on pre-configured alerts and behavioral analytics with the help of its insider threat detection feature.
• It also quickly senses attempts made for abnormal authentication behavior such as deliberate incorrect password attempts, unauthorized access, and brute force attacks in real time, and issues alerts immediately which helps prevent data theft as well as monetary losses.
• It detects abnormal cloud workload and usage, multi-vector attacks, misconfigurations, and so on.
• It monitors heavy network traffic for internet as well as private business networks and encrypts exfiltrated data.
• It offers complete protection from various types of cyber threats such as phishing attacks, prevents software copying, helps protect critical data, and provides good endpoint detection and response (EDR) integration.

 
 
While manufacturing units may not be the first on the radar of cyber thieves; however, threats are there and hence safeguarding these systems with a robust solution such as IBM QRadar SIEM. Also, it is important to partner with a reliable player who can customize this product to suit your requirements. Futurism Technologies is one of the leading players offering cyber security products to the manufacturing sector. This includes the Advanced Threat Protection Package which uses QRadar SIEM and X-Force powered by IBM Security. This package offers timely alerts and messages by using intelligence feeds from X-Force to detect and mitigate these threats on an immediate basis.
 

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