Manufacturing industry losing the cyber game, says association

The manufacturing sector in the UK needs to improve its cyber security to deal with a growing number of cyber threats, says the manufacturers’ association EEF.

The association’s research revealed that although “serious attention” has been given to cyber security at the boardroom level by close to two in three firms that replied, there is still much work to be done.

There has been a dip in cyber security investment, with one in two manufacturers having failed to increase investment. That number increases to 56% among small manufacturing firm.

Just 36% said that their firm has implemented an incident response plan. Further, 20% said that they fail to inform their workforce of cyber threats in their company policies.

EEF claimed that a cyber attack on the sector could result in data mishandling that, if undetected, could result in health and safety issues or product formulation changes, in addition to critical data deletion, missing customer databases and IP theft.

EEF Chief Economist Lee Hopley, said:

“As technology and data start to play increasingly critical roles in manufacturing, companies will inevitably find themselves more vulnerable to cyber breaches. Our survey highlights that investment in new technology isn’t being matched by investment in managing risks, especially among smaller firms.”

Manufacturing firms should sit up and take notice in order to avoid such disasters such as data breaches. Certainly, one of their key focuses for investment should be on personnel. Creating cyber security jobs and attracting talented staff capable of dealing with a cyber attack can future-poof their business amid a growing number of threats.