SMART FACTORY SECURING THE IOT
by Joe Lomako, business development manager (IoT) at TÜV SÜD, a global product testing and certification organisation
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s devices, systems and processes become increasingly digitised and interconnected, the Internet of Things (IoT) opens a wealth of opportunities for manufacturers. However, these same technologies also present cyberattack weaknesses, as cybercriminals seek out opportunities to hack into the critical infrastructure of connected production facilities. Likewise, in the IoT age every wireless-enabled product that is manufactured represents a potential threat to data security and privacy. A report from Make UK revealed that 60 per cent of its members have been subject to a cyber security incident, almost a third of whom suffered some financial loss or disruption to business as a result. 41 per cent of manufacturers went on to report that they have been asked by customers to demonstrate or guarantee the robustness of their cyber security processes.
Manufacturers can manage cybersecurity risk and mitigate attacks by taking a proactive and holistic security planning approach. This will help them to avoid costly product recalls, design changes and possibly heavy penalties due to any data security breaches. Such preventative security measures should begin at the design phase and employ the principle of ‘Secure by Design’. This process should begin with an assessment of the business impact and probability of risks, as without clearly understanding and prioritising risks, it is not possible to determine the appropriate security
requirements for the product being manufactured or the manufacturer’s IoT systems. Risks can be also minimised by continuously monitoring the security of the IT infrastructure. For example, it is all too common for companies not to disconnect equipment that is no longer being used. This ‘shadow IT’, creates potential cyberattack gaps. The risks can be minimised by monitoring the security of the IT infrastructure and decommissioning equipment and software that is no longer required.
After risks are understood, the next step is to evaluate the hardware and software, which is the cyberattack surface. Testing of the individual components against requirements determined by the risk assessment is the foundation of a secure product. Security is exceedingly difficult to install as a software add-on after product development.
“Make UK revealed that 60 per cent of its members have been subject to a cyber security incident, almost a third of whom suffered some financial loss or disruption to business as a result”
24 JULY/AUGUST 2020 | FACTORY&HANDLINGSOLUTIONS
Every aspect of the product must therefore be assessed for vulnerabilities, including device hardware (chipsets, sensors and actuators), wireless communication modules and protocols, device firmware (OS and embedded applications), cloud platforms and applications. An end-to-end and continuous validation process should also be performed to determine the attack resilience of the individual components and support services. However, it is also important to go beyond embedding security into products, and end- user behaviour should be considered. Such an approach includes unintended misuse by the end- user and ensures that they are made aware of potential issues.
From a regulatory perspective, while there are defined standards available globally, they are not complete and ratified, neither are they mandatory. In Europe the standard for IoT products is presently in draft stage, but the document contains a lot of important information and provides a security baseline of mandatory and non-mandatory provisions.
Although this standard does assist in defining and verifying a product as having a first line of defence, manufacturers should also consider their own cybersecurity programmes. For example, a starting point would be:
• Think “Secure by design” and take a proactive approach to cybersecurity recognising that attacks
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