Industrial impact due to cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Need of an Hour

The global cybersecurity market size was valued at USD 156.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.0% from 2020 to 2027. Cybersecurity is a continuously changing field, with the development of technologies that open up new avenues for cyberattacks.
Internet becomes the commonplace for cyberattacks it acting as a platform for cybercrimes every year, industry reports, media outlets and academic articles highlight this increased prevalence, spanning both the amount and variety of attacks and cybercrimes.

The goal of implementing cybersecurity is to provide a good security posture for computers, servers, networks, mobile devices and the data stored on these devices from attackers with malicious intent. It has become vital amid organization due to rapidly increasing frauds, cybercrimes, risk, threats, and vulnerabilities. Disruptive and emerging technologies in banking, retail, information technology, defense, and manufacturing sectors have offered new capabilities, facilitated automation, and offered ease of working in the recent past.

Various Governments and companies are taking many measures in order to prevent these cyber crimes
Besides various measures cyber security is still a very big concern to many

Benefits of cybersecurity

Benefits served by cybersecurity include:

• Business protection against malware, ransomware, phishing and social engineering.
• Protection for data and networks.
• Prevention of unauthorized users.
• Improves recovery time after a breach.
• Protection for end-users.

Cybersecurity Facts

Today, more resources are being deployed to counter cyber-attacks, the industry still has a long way to go before we can, as a whole, catch up with these threats. Thus it become essential to understanding the facts or the key pain areas and to mitigate them

• The global average cost of a data breach is $3.9 million across SMBs
• Since COVID-19, the US FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes
• More than 93% of healthcare organizations have experienced a data breach over the past three years
• Approximately $6 trillion is expected to be spent globally on cybersecurity by 2021
• 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error
• More than 77% of organizations do not have a Cyber Security Incident Response plan
• Most companies take nearly 6 months to detect a data breach, even major ones

Impact of Cyber-attacks on Industries

Cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world !!!
As societies around the world depend ever more heavily on technology, the ability to shut down or destroy infrastructure, take control of machines and vehicles, and directly cause the loss of life has become a reality.

For any industry to succeed in digital transformation need to focus on cybersecurity as a vital component of every single process and decision they want to take with the digital transformation. The ignorance of
Cybersecurity results into cost of a data breach. The data breach in industrial manufacturing is amongst the highest as compared to any other industry. A single breach averages $5.2 million in the industrial sector, according to the 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report by the Ponemon Institute.

Healthcare

The healthcare industry had experienced the highest level of breaches in 2019. IBM reported that cybercriminals are more likely to steal data from hospitals’ databases because their security systems are usually outdated, despite the fact that the data they handle are vulnerable (e.g., email addresses, social security system numbers, address and contact details). Even their employees’ private information are usually left unencrypted.

Manufacturers

For the manufacturer achieving cyber resilience involves diligence, good practice and risk management that’s supported by the right security strategy and technologies. Cyber-attacks in manufacturing targets the smart machines, storage systems and production facilities. It causes disruptions or longer outages, at enormous cost. The damages due to unauthorized login may force the unscheduled and sudden shutdown of the expensive equipment such as blast furnace causing `massive damage’ and production losses.

IOT devices and Embedded systems

With the implementation of I4.0 and IoT the number of smart devices over the internet are increasing day to day, the firmware and software which is running on IoT and embedded devices make consumer and businesses highly susceptible to cyber-attacks. Many a times it become highly impossible to access the devices for maintenance and upgradation to overcome the problem we need to certify the device and public key infrastructure (PKI) architectures. Implementing PKI into embedded systems secures the communication layer, creating a system that verifies the authenticity, configuration, and integrity of connected devices

Block chain

The blockchain is a technology and global platform that enables cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin it allows two or more parties to do a transaction or do business without needing a third party for establishing trust. Hence role of cybersecurity is very important without which the success of block chain become impossible.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce is an online commercial platform where transactions conducted online. It suports many technologies such as mobile commerce, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.
There are various types of e-commerce threats. Some are accidental, some are purposeful, and some of them are due to human error. The most common security threats are an electronic payments system, e-cash, data misuse, credit/debit card frauds, etc.

Understanding Cybersecurity Standards

The cyber security standard involve methods, guidelines, reference frameworks, etc. The use of standard ensures security, facilitates integration and interoperability, enables meaningful comparison of measures, reduces complexity, and provide the structure for new developments. The Security standards can be implemented in any organizations regardless of their size or the industry and sector in which they operate.
Following are some of standards

ISO

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization. International Standards make things to work. These standards provide a world-class specification for products, services and computers, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. They are instrumental in facilitating international trade.

ISO 27000 Series

It is the family of information security standards which is developed by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electro technical Commission to provide a globally recognized framework for best information security management. It helps the organization to keep their information assets secure such as employee details, financial information, and intellectual property.

IT Act

The Information Technology Act also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act main aims is to provide the legal infrastructure in India which deal with cybercrime and e-commerce.

Copyright Act

The Copyright Act 1957 amended by the Copyright Amendment Act 2012 governs the subject of copyright law in India. This Act is applicable from 21 January 1958. Copyright is a legal term which describes the ownership of control of the rights to the authors of “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.

Patent Law

Patent law is a law that deals with new inventions. Traditional patent law protect tangible scientific inventions, such as circuit boards, heating coils, car engines, or zippers.

IPR

Intellectual property rights is a right that allow creators, or owners of patents, trademarks or copyrighted works to benefit from their own plans, ideas, or other intangible assets or investment in a creation

Role of Digital Signature

The computer-based business information authentication interrelates both technology and the law. Digital signature plays a very important role while dealing with the cyber security it enables validates the authenticity and integrity of a message, software or digital documents. The digital signature offers far more inherent security and intended to solve the problem of tampering and impersonation (Intentionally copy another person’s characteristics) in digital communications.

Strengthening Cybersecurity

Today, cyber-attack are prominent and it can be from any part of the world some of its forms
include phishing, whaling, social engineering, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, malware and ransomware. Furthermore, there are new malware and viruses being discovered every day. To overcome the cyber risk we need to do risk analysis also it should be analyzed on a regular basis and be updated to identify new potential threats. The strategic risk analysis helps to minimize the future risk probability and damage.

Cyber risk is the probability of exposure or loss resulting from a cyber-attack or data breach in an organization. Cyber risks are majorly due to the increasing reliance on computers, networks, programs, social media and data globally. To mitigate the security risk over the cyber space we need to implement strategies at various layers of cyber space

1. Protecting user assets
2. Protection from attacks, damages and unauthorized access or networks
3. Reducing vulnerability in information and ICT system and networks

Implementation Strategies of Cybersecurity

With the use of cybersecurity policies one can achieve the accountability it also helps to educate employees on security literacy and make them aware so that they should update and adopt the best practices of mitigating cyber attacks

Cybersecurity implementation involves is strategic approach and varies from one organization to other following are few of key questestions which helps to define the strategic cybersecurity implementation

1. What to protect it means setting the priority of the actions that needed to be taken during system failure so as to achieve fast recover with minimum downtime
2. What to protect it focuses on designing the mechanism to detect and analyses the threat to avoid the failure
3. How to protect it corresponds to the security assurance from various threatening factors by implementing the standard measures and procedures

Conclusion

We can conclude that the impact due to cyber-attack causes substantial production loss, financial losses, reputation damage and leads towards legal consequences of cyber breach on the contrary with use of cyber security one can help prevent cyber-attacks, data breaches and identity theft and can aid in risk management. When an organization has a strong sense of network security and an effective incident response plan, it is better able to prevent and serious of these attacks. There is no perfect solution for cybercrimes but we should try our level best to minimize them in order to have a safe and secure future in cyber space.

Article by Rahul Chandrayan (chandrayan.rahul22@gmail.com)