Electricity + Control August 2019

CYBER SECURITY

you should obtain the services of an OT governance organisation to assist with creating or adjusting processes that are globally aligned.” His advice to manufacturing companies is to perform an industrial cyber security (ICS) assessment before making any rash investments in people or technologies. Such an assessment comprises a vulnerability assessment and a penetration test of the current infrastructure to get an accurate view of the assets and architecture and understand the cyber risks.

“Once this has been done, a pragmatic ICS cyber risk roadmap needs to be developed to determine the risks and how these can be minimised, accepted or outsourced. Importantly, operational and production efficiencies, as well as capacity, should not be compromised. Cyber security can be built intelligently into the fabric of the production systems,” Ueckermann says. He adds that ongoing monitoring with appropriate tools and processes is imperative to ensure a proactive and predictive approach to managing risks in industrial control environments over the long term. “Manufacturing companies can benefit from a two-pronged approach that encompasses both risk management and risk outsourcing in the form of cyber insurance. The company’s risk profile will determine the level of cover required. Companies could lower their cyber insurance costs by taking steps to improve their risk profile, for instance, by ensuring that security solutions are up-to-date and properly managed, and by practising good governance. “Cyber risk management in modern manufacturing is still new to the sector and manufacturing companies need to plan and implement effective strategies and appropriate tools to manage and offset cyber risks in their environments,” he says. “A team with a deep skills set and appropriate experience is needed to find solutions for specific environments and risk profiles.” Reference: 1. Winder, D. (2019, June 20). NASA has been hacked. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/ sites/daveywinder/2019/06/20/confirmed-nasa-has- been-hacked/#2e99f18cdc62

AVeS Cyber Security AVeS Cyber Security is a specialist IT gov- ernance and architectural services consul- tancy that combines expert knowledge and services with leading technology products to provide comprehensive information security and advanced IT infrastructure solutions. Over the past 21 years, AVeS Cyber Security has strategically honed its solutions and services to help Southern African businesses future-proof their IT en- vironments against the constantly evolving threat landscape while achieving their digi- tal transformation objectives. The company offers a portfolio of professional services, products and training in security, infra- structure and governance solutions. This year (2019), the company has won three awards from some of the world’s top tech- nology vendors, indicating its competency, strength, innovation and robustness in an industry that is fast-growing in complexity. It has also received new partner status as a Microsoft Gold Datacenter Partner, DellE- MC Gold Partner, and Barracuda Preferred Partner.

For more information visit: https://aves.co.za/ or email: info@aves.co.za

Electricity + Control

AUGUST 2019

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