Industry 4.0 – Understanding Data Security
Authored by Aaditya Damani, Managing Director, Autosys Industrial Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
What is Cyber Security?
Various processes and controls designed to protect systems, networks and data from any intrusion is cyber security. An effective system in place reduces the risk of any unwanted intrusions or sniffing and protects the organisation and individuals from any unauthorised exploitation of the network or the information warehoused.
Robust cyber security involves implementing controls that are based around three pillars: people, processes and technology. This three-pronged approach helps organisations defend themselves from both highly organised attacks and common internal threats, such as accidental breaches and human error.
Understanding the elements of Cyber Security & Why is it important?
Application Security – With the acceleration towards Internet of Things (IoT) engineering around the web has become more robust, effective and convenient. Most of the applications are migrated or developed over the web from inception. This exposes the application to various vulnerabilities. Applications with open ends are often left un attended. It is important for organisations to protect the application from any attacks or intrusion as it serves as an easy access to the buried database.
Information Security – Cyber attacks are likely to circle around theft of information or data which could derive substantial set of information thread. This can be often misused or played against the primary owner of the information. We shall however set out examples of the information misuse around Industrial space. Exposure of confidential information may affect publicly traded companies as their stock price could be manipulated. Competitors of any company could use the information to their advantage.
Network Security – Network security is the process of protecting the usability and integrity of your network and data. A thorough network penetration test must be conducted which aims to assess your network for vulnerabilities and security issues in servers, hosts, devices and network services to ensure the sophistication of the infrastructure deployed. Network exposes the entire organisation to every thread of information secured on the premises. An intruder can get a complete access to every terminal, database, servers access and control to manipulate or pull out if he/she manages to sniff into the network.
How to maintain an effective cyber security system?
The ideal strategy to mitigate and minimise the effects of a cyber attack is to engineer a strong foundation within the organisation and a secure network infrastructure.
Software providers often deploy their applications on the clients infrastructure assuring them a compatibility and seamless run which could be true, however the root of the problem is built when there are different vendors providing different applications, each of which opening up various network security configuration to ensure a successful deployment of their solution.
And technology gaps will always appear for one simple reason: developers will always keep certain portions of their code proprietary as part of their competitive advantage. Hence, true compatibility and interoperability may only be 90%. These are known as technology gaps. It is through these gaps that attacks usually occur.
A solid cyber security foundation will identify these gaps and propose the appropriate action to take to mitigate the risk of an attack, enabling you to build a robust cyber security strategy.