A few weeks ago, our Business Development and Manufacturing Specialist, Cathy Witte, participated in a Manufacturing Financial Executive Roundtable event hosted by Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) titled “The Cyber Threat: Protecting Your Business”. The roundtable panel included cybersecurity experts across the state who discussed ways manufacturing companies can protect their businesses from a hack. Here are only some of the key highlights from the roundtable. To view a full article of details from the event, please read the original post from GJM.
Threats Can Come From Anywhere
Dr. Loren Wagner, Director of Risk & Technical Services at CentraComm, spoke about the 2020 SolarWinds hack. The SolarWinds hack sent harmful code to their customers, giving the hackers access to their IT infrastructures. Dr. Wagner added that threats can come from anywhere, near or far, internal or external.
Creative Cyber Criminals
Alex Clark, VP and Cyber Risk Leader at Hylant, continued the discussion saying ransomware now accounts for about half of the cyber insurance claims they see. The criminals are getting more creative in accessing infrastructure and stealing data.
Key Takeaways
When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s better to be safe than sorry and have a plan in place in case an attack happens. Having an IT or cybersecurity employee on the executive team will bring cyber protection to the forefront of operations. Here are some helpful tips for protecting your company:
- Periodically train your employees on cyber threats
- Scan your system at least two times a year
- Secure all software, even ones about to expire
- Include cell phones in protection plans
- Cybersecurity is constantly changing, stay up-to-date
- Have a backup plan and an incident response plan in place
There are funding opportunities for cyber projects available through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). If you are interested in learning more about funding, please contact our manufacturing team through our website.