Cybersecurity in industry is a top priority

The Industrial Cyber Security online knowledge week attracted many interested visitors. Various aspects of cyber security within the industry were discussed over three days. And everyone agreed on one thing: the importance of good cyber security has never been greater than it is now.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

The lecture by Maarten van Hees from Maersk on Wednesday made a great impression on the viewers of the knowledge event. In 2017, the container terminals of subsidiary APM were out of action for days as a result of the NotPetya malware, but Maersk branches worldwide were also affected. NotPetya was developed by Russian hackers and initially targeted Ukraine.

Van Hees explained how thousands of servers were damaged at Maersk, while tens of thousands of laptops also became unusable. A crisis team developed a comprehensive plan to get the IT and OT infrastructure back up and running. According to Van Hees, although many malware attacks are criminal in intent, cyber attacks from countries do pose a danger to industrial systems. In addition, he described how Maersk rebuilt its entire digital infrastructure in the wake of NotPetya with security as its top priority.

But security must also be in order for SMEs, something that is still too often seen as a final item in the budget. Liesbeth Holterman from Cybersecurity Center Manufacturing Industry - FHI spoke about this spoke to her before the event – how the CCM helps SME entrepreneurs to get their security in order, especially in the manufacturing industry.

On the final day of the Industrial Cyber Security online knowledge week, visitors were shown a number of interesting webinars. Mark Hellinghuizer (Yokogawa) walked through a short history of increasingly serious cyber incidents - ransomware in particular appears to be successful in this day and age - and gave the viewer a series of tips to improve the cyber security of their production environments.

In his webinar, Sebastiaan Koning from Hudson Cybertec provided insight into how patching should be applied, among other things, to make outdated equipment more secure. Koning also paid attention to the separation of networks and the accurate monitoring of OT systems.

The knowledge week was concluded on Thursday by Hans Smit of the Rijnland Water Board. Smit outlined how the digital infrastructure has been renewed based on standardization and a lot of attention to cyber security. During his webinar, Smit indicated that the road to certification was a tough one, but that the standard has been achieved: Rijnland is now the first water board IEC 62443 certified for the security of process automation of water transport and purification.

The Industrial Cyber Security online knowledge week attracted 252 unique visitors. Visitors attend an average of four webinars. The available replays and slides can be viewed via the website of the knowledge week.