Security Frameworks | Certitude Security

Frameworks are often implemented to reduce risk by focusing on your business exposure to probable attacks. Frameworks, such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, assist manufacturers with determining resource priorities, while also helping to reach compliance goals. Cyber attacks are inevitable, but the extent of loss is not predetermined.

The threat of data breaches continues to increase and has become more significant for manufacturers. The 2019 Verizon report analyzed 41,686 security incidents, of which 2,013 were confirmed data breaches. 43% of breaches involved small business victims. The three leading tactics used to cause data breaches were; Hacking (52%), Social Attacks (33%), and Malware (28%).

The use of IoT, within your manufacturing business, brings its own challenges. The increasing deployment of IoT devices, many with weak security, present a growing opportunity for hackers. Many IoT products have been found to have extremely weak security that criminals look to exploit. Hackers also look to leverage the lack of visibility many manufacturers have when it comes to understanding what their IoT devices are doing. A single IoT device could offer hackers access to your network, systems and data.

Some IoT devices are embedded into systems, which makes them harder to update or replace. It’s important to look ahead when integrating devices, considering the anticipated lifetime of many IoT devices is five years or longer. Many older devices lack security features that are now critical, and often lack the ability to update software and firmware to fix know exploited vulnerabilities.

The FBI’s 2019 Internet Crime Report emphasizes the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s (IC3) efforts in monitoring trending scams such as Business Email Compromise (BEC), Ransomware, Elder Fraud, and Tech Support Fraud. In 2019, IC3 received a total of 467,361 complaints with losses exceeding $3.5 Billion.

Looking back to 2018, the trending scams were Business Email Compromise (BEC), Extortion, Tech Support Fraud, and Payroll Diversion. In 2018, IC3 received a total of 351,936 complaints with losses exceeding $2.7 Billion.

Organizations should improve their knowledge of adversary capabilities and common attack vectors while also identifying risks from third parties in the supply chain, and insider threats. Insiders, whether intentional disregard or inadvertent, such as phishing email, are the cause of many security problems.

Critical Cybersecurity Measures: Knowing Your Enemy

Before you can protect your critical processes and systems, you need to determine your strategy and risk level. Conducting an internal audit of your systems is pivotal, as the results will help you understand the nature of your cybersecurity strengths and weaknesses. Afterwards, we can begin working with you to develop a security framework plan that provides protections your business requires.

Our security assessments will help you identify the specific threats that can affect your manufacturing business, the workflows that are the most at risk, and the types of probable attacks that are most likely to cause loss. By prioritizing your cybersecurity structure according to the most critical dangers and what your leadership team doesn’t consider an acceptable risk, you can begin to build a viable co-developed plan in conjunction with our team.

Creating Consistent Threat Awareness Among Staff

Although there’s a lot to be said for a strong, well-implemented cybersecurity framework, it won’t provide the requisite level of protection if the members of your workforce don’t fully understand it, or don’t follow established polices and procedures in terms of regular security protocols.

A major share of the data records organizations see exposed by breaches are attributable to “inadvertent insiders.” Your employees may not mean to cause harm; carelessness and malice aren’t mutually exclusive, and human error is, well, human. But lack of knowledge or inconsistent application can cause or facilitate the exact same breaches that an external hacker or internal saboteur can.

Upon receiving assistance from our security team to understand your biggest gaps, you can incorporate cybersecurity training into your on boarding procedures and establish continuous learning initiatives for current staff. Your people are your company’s most valuable resource, and they can play active roles in keeping your business safe.

Correcting Outsourced IT Service Providers’ Mistakes

Your leadership team isn’t the reason that implementing a security framework is difficult. Criminal enterprises, state sponsored renegades, and other malicious actors use spear-phishing, social engineering, and other hacking tactics to assault your staff’s awareness and breach your security defenses.

Choosing the wrong cybersecurity service provider or using IT staff who aren’t focused on security can negatively impact your prevention and mitigation efforts. We commonly discover that business executives misplace their trust in 3^rd party IT providers. We are referring to basic cybersecurity controls and data backup and recovery requirements that fail to be properly implemented. This leads to business interruption and unbudgeted expenses for the business stakeholders, as the IT provider walks away. Is this really a viable strategy?

Certitude Security™ specializes not only in comprehensive cybersecurity assessments, but also oversight of any services and systems put in place by an external provider. Our team works alongside you and your IT team to verify whether the vendor you’re paying is making good on its offers, correcting any mistakes or helping you fill in missing pieces of your security framework. We offer decades of IT experience and insider knowledge of the manufacturing sector to provide your company with reasonable solutions that address your needs.

If you’d like to learn more about implementing a security framework, contact us today.

Schedule Your Consultation