DIGITAL ERA BY: JORDAN WEBER


From tablets connecting field personnel with headquarters to censors monitoring assembly-line productivity, the digital age has brought a host of new technological advantages to the industrial and manufacturing sectors. However, as the business world becomes progressively more integrated with the digital world, the danger of online infiltration also proliferates. Today it is ever more pressing that companies across every market make cybersecurity a top priority.


“It’s a common issue in almost all industries,” said John Pescatore, director of Emerging Security Trends at SANS, one of the world’s largest sources for cybersecurity training. “Companies have a safety program but don’t consider security a part of safety.” Incorporating cybersecurity into workplace culture is one of the best ways a business can fight online threats, and is part of the work Pescatore does with SANS. All too often, businesses that do minimal work online or that are not in traditionally high-tech environments assume that they won’t be the targets of a cyber-attack. “A lot of small companies in a lot of different industries think, ‘well, they’re not going after us,’” Pescatore warned, “but it’s not just credit card companies or banks that the bad guys are going after.” In the past decade, many larger institutions,


government agencies, and those operating the globe’s most critical infrastructure have made significant advancements in their cybersecurity infrastructure. However, due to a variety of factors—from a lack


John Pescatore 30 MAY–JUNE 2019 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE


of resources to misinformation—smaller and mid-size business remain extremely vulnerable. And, because they are offer entry points into larger information technology (IT) infrastructures, many small businesses have become targets for sophisticated digital attacks.


IDENTIFYING THREATS One of the most common online threats, which target businesses of all levels, are ransomware and phishing schemes. Ransomware is a malicious software inadvertently


downloaded onto a computer that either steals or blocks access to a system’s sensitive data until a ransom is paid. Most ransomware infiltrates a business’s network through a phishing scheme, where an employee unwittingly provides sensitive information to a hacker via a fraudulent email or other instant messaging service like Facebook or Skype. Recent statistics suggest that nearly 90 percent of data


breaches are the result of phishing schemes, and, once ransomware is installed, it can devastate a business. According to Mary Seale, CEO and president of the nonprofit National Cyber


BRINGS DIGITAL DANGERS EXPERTS ARE URGING BUSINESS TO TAKE CYBERSECURITY SERIOUSLY


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