Protecting Our Future by Leclair Jane

Author:Leclair, Jane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hudson Whitman/ Excelsior College Press
Published: 2015-07-13T04:00:00+00:00

Conclusion and Future Trends in the Critical Manufacturing Sector

It is very important to remember that maintaining a state of compliance with the regulations and laws that govern a sector does not mean that the infrastructure is secure against cyber-attacks from internal or external blackhat hackers. Compliance does not equal security and conversely security does not always equal compliance. Being compliant is a good way to establish a foundational baseline of organizational cybersecurity, but it is only a foundation and not a fully developed program of cybersecurity governance and protection.

Because of the interconnectivity between organizations involved in critical manufacturing and the public, governments, third-party partners, and foreign national workforce members, the risk to the economic viability of the U.S. does exist (Warfield, 2012). However, until more high-profile hacks like the Sony breach—with its significant negative impact to Sony’s 2014 and most likely 2015 profits—make the news and raise the awareness within Corporate America’s C-Suite, cybersecurity professionals will continue to fight against private sector capitalistic motivations that avoid spending corporate dollars required to protect the organization from internal and external threats. Many C-Suite executives are not aware of the 2007 cyber-attack in Brazil that knocked the largest iron ore producer in the world offline, an act that cost that company $7 million dollars in lost profits (Brenner, 2013) and until they do become more aware of these attacks they might continue to turn a blind eye on the corporate risk exposure. Many times when the C-Suite does see or hear something that makes them worry about their cybersecurity posture they go and ask their Chief Information (CIO) about it and the CIO tells them not to worry, ‘we’ve got this covered.’ However, as the excessive amount of cyber breaches in 2014 has shown the CIO and their IT team do not have this covered. Perhaps it is time for the C-Suite to ask their CISO or cybersecurity team for their cybersecurity concerns. It is difficult for a CIO to admit to their senior executives that they are also leaving systems in place that are highly vulnerable.

The future will only bring more frequent and sophisticated attacks. One or more successful cyberattacks that shut down even a small portion of the Critical Manufacturing Sector will create economic loss and uncertainty that will spread to other sectors, damage the country’s reputation, and erode consumer confidence. This, combined with the continued expansion of wireless technology and increased use of ICS, makes the need to lock down and secure these vulnerable technologies critical to the long-term security of the sector.

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