8DEC - JANMANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSIN MY OPINIONBy Matthias Springer, Senior Vice President Functional Safety & Security, TÜV NORDThe coronavirus pandemic will have a lasting impact on the global business and industry. Despite the broadly discussed negative developments, companies have made quantum leaps with regard to digitalisation in a very short time. What used to be a rather sketchy plan has turned into concrete measures. With enormous speed, industrial companies have been able to implement digitalisation and automation projects. Remote accessibility of plants and systems, remote monitoring and predictive maintenance are elementary in times of shutdown and home office in order to maintain operations. What we are currently experiencing is akin to a paradigm shift. Unfortunately, with the naturally understandable euphoria about digital transformation in record time, security aspects often fade into the background. Unprotected networked systems pose an immense risk­a fact that is often acknowledged too late.INDUSTRIAL PLANTS SS TARGETS OF CYBER ATTACKSPetya, WannaCry, TRITON­they all have become known to the public as malware which has produced considerable damage in recent years. The terms are now synonymous with cyber-attacks, which have raised awareness of how vulnerable digital industrial plants are today. Petya and WannaCry were Trojans and used for rather widespread attacks that targeted more or less every Windows-based computer. Not only global companies were affected in Europe but also hospitals, ministries, and infrastructure. With these cyber-attacks came numerous ransom demands. The publicly known incident TRITON was directed against an industrial safety control in the Middle East. This incident triggered the securestate­but it is suspected that the attackers were actually trying to disable the safety control. Only by chance or a bugin the malware did the catastrophe­the explosion of a petrochemical plant­not occur. It is likely that more attacks will follow in the future. Matthias SpringerINDUSTRIAL SECURITY: PROTECTION OF NEW DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES
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