Manufacturing saw over 27% of threats in Q1 2019

New Delhi, June 27 (IANS) The manufacturing sector accounted for more than 27 per cent of the threats between January and March 2019 -- the highest among all industries, said a new report by Quick Heal's Enterprise Security brand Seqrite.

With global manufacturers expected to invest around $70 billion on industrial IoT solutions in 2020, the growing integration of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) presents a major security risk.

"Over the years, manufacturers across India have invested heavily to secure themselves against physical intrusions and damages. However, ensuring robust digital security for their IT systems as well as the connected devices used in manufacturing processes has remained quite low on the list of priorities," Sanjay Katkar, Joint Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer, Quick Heal Technologies Limited, said in a statement.

"This imbalance is becoming a major challenge for the industry. At present, the Indian manufacturing sector is vulnerable to threats from cybercriminals looking to make financial gains, corporate espionage by competitors looking to gain competitive advantage, and/or state-sponsored threat actors looking to cause widespread economic disruption."

Many IoT-enabled devices commonly leveraged by manufacturers such as sensors, barcode readers, quality control systems, inventory management solutions, etc come with weak or minimal security.

Such unsecured connected devices present a lucrative avenue to cybercriminals to attack and infiltrate the larger enterprise network, according to the "Seqrite Threat Report Q1 2019".

Apart from the manufacturing industry, the report highlighted several other sectors which were at high risk from cyber threats. Enterprises in industries such as professional services (22.59 per cent) and education (14.64 per cent) were all hit by high volumes of cyber threats during Q1 2019.