As more packaging machines and production lines gain coveted Industry 4.0 connection capabilities, the threat of hacking grows. Yet most companies have no cyber security solutions in place, much less a strategy. What should they do? A recent study by Honeywell identifies a trio of actions every industrial operation should take:

1. Make industrial cyber security part of the company’s digital transformation strategy;

2. Drive best practice adoption across people, processes and technology, from access controls to risk monitoring—and tap external cyber expertise to fill gaps.

3. Focus on empowering leaders and building an organizational structure that breaks down the silos between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT).

Despite an increase in industrial cyber attacks around the world, nearly two thirds of surveyed companies don’t even monitor for suspicious behavior. Yet 53% of respondents say their facility has already suffered a cyber breach.

In a press release about the study results, Jeff Zindel, vp/general manager of Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security, says companies need to move quicker than they currently are. “To take advantage of the tremendous benefits of industrial digital transformation and IIoT, companies must improve their cyber security defenses and adapt to the heightened threat landscape now,” Zindel urges.

What security measures are plants already using? The top one, according to 59% of respondents, is putting a firewall between plant and business systems.

Sponsored by Honeywell and conducted by LNS Research, the survey Putting Industrial Cyber Security at the Top of the CEO Agenda polled 130 strategic decision makers from industrial companies, asking about their approach to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and their use of industrial cyber security technologies and practices.

Download the free report by clicking the survey link in the paragraph above. Click here to see a video about the survey.

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