"Cybersecurity in industrial environments, due to its complexity, poses multiple challenges and one of the most important is to consider that cybersecurity as we understood it before is not enough for new threats."

ZIUR Industrial Cyber Security Center

Threat Intelligence Report (October 2022)

This report aims to analyze whether the traditional approach to cybersecurity to secure the industrial environment (OT/ICS) is still valid against the most modern and current threats.

Industrial companies need to grow, expand and benefit from the digital transformation in what we know as industry 4.0, the industrial internet or the Connected Industry 4.0. In these cases, we are talking about digitization, connecting machines, systems, companies, collecting huge amounts of data that allow decisions to be made in the most precise way and in the shortest time. The ultimate goal is to create new and better products and increase productivity, generating differential value in the company that allows it to be more competitive in the global context.

The benefits of digitization and connectivity are enormous, but at the same time, they have increased the exposure area of ​​companies to cyberattacks. The consequences of a cyberattack can range from the kidnapping of data to demand a ransom, the theft of IPR (intellectual property), the stoppage of machines or their malfunctioning, to a modification of predetermined values ​​(setpoints) that makes the manufactured product does not come out with the expected quality or that wrong decisions are made due to the manipulation of data. Its consequences can be economic, but it can cause environmental damage or even cause injuries of different degrees to people, in addition to projecting a bad image of the company.

This analysis is intended to give a current vision of cybersecurity in an industrial environment, as well as provide a series of conclusions and recommendations.