Cybercrime is a growing threat to all businesses in all sectors and all sizes, from sole traders and the self employed, to large corporates and multinationals. According to analysis from Beaming, UK businesses faced an average of 146,491 attempted cyber-attacks in the second quarter of 2019. This equates to one attack every 50 seconds and is the highest level since 2016. Over the summer of 2019 British Airways was the first British company to be fined under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Any business that falls victim to cybercrime could stand to lose a lot. It’s not just the financial implications that can be devastating but also the potential damage to the reputation of your business. Will you lose customers as a result? Will your customers trust you with their data again? While large companies may have the resources to be able to recover faster and more easily, for freelancers and small businesses, recovery could take much longer. In the most severe cases it could even be terminal for your business.

The threat of cyberattacks is, as we all know, always lurking on the horizon, much in the same way as GDPR is, which is being implemented on the 25^th May.

Despite the fact that fears are rising and attacks are becoming more frequent, it seems that manufacturing plants across the UK simply aren’t doing enough to protect themselves from the dangers of cyber-related incidents. More than 80 plants in the UK have fallen victim to such incidents, mainly due to the fact that they lack the visibility and tools needed to carry out the appropriate cyber assessments.

Are UK manufacturers in the midst of an uphill struggle unlikely to go away when it comes to cybersecurity and GDPR?

What GDPR will do

When it comes into effect on May 25^th, GDPR will mean that any organisation failing to carry out the appropriate assessments and actions to prevent cyber-attacks could incur fines from the ICO. Astonishingly, these fines could be as high as four percent of a firm’s annual turnover. Surely that news alone is enough to encourage manufacturing companies to sit up and listen…

Where do manufacturers stand with GDPR?

One of the biggest issues regarding GDPR and the manufacturing industry in a lack of understanding regarding its effects. According to a survey conducted by EEF, 16% of manufacturers claim to know little about GDPR or how it will impact on their business and 34% are failing to educate their staff about GDPR.

Once implemented, GDPR will affect the manufacturing industry in the following ways:

  Data processing – businesses will be required to secure all personal data including contact details and bank account information.

• The right for data to be deleted – Any data that you have about an individual can be requested to be deleted or reviewed by the person concerned.
• Consent – When businesses go about collecting any type of personal information consent will need to be obtained. 

In order to overcome the threats of GDPR, manufacturers could take a KPI approach to their cybersecurity, setting goals and metrics that will improve security.

Cyber-crime is not something that is likely to happen, it is something that is guaranteed to happen, again and again, unless businesses take the appropriate steps to prevent it. 

Cyber threats are a hot topic right now and recent statistics have revealed that more small companies are worried about the risk of cyber threats and what they could mean for the future of their business than Brexit.

In response to cybersecurity fears, SMEs are planning to up their spend on firewalls, security software and other defences to more than £3.8bn over the next 12 months, but just how much of a concern should cyber threats be to SMEs and what are the most prevalent areas that you should be worried about?

Internal attacks 

For SME owners that are just starting out and lack experience, it might come as a surprise to learn that one of the biggest threats that you are facing isn’t something remote and intangible, it actually comes from within your company. Rogue employees who have access to networks, sensitive data and admin accounts can cause real damage to your company.

To reduce the risk of these types of threats, SMEs need to identify privileged accounts, which are able to effect of access internal systems.

Phishing

Phishing is one of the most common type of cyber threats and is something that affects businesses every single day. Phishing is a fraudulent practice that involves the sending of emails to companies purporting to be a reputable company in order to encourage individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

To protect against the dangers of this, ensure that you and your employees are aware of how to spot a phishing email. The message will often contain a mismatched URL and a misleading domain name.

A general lack of knowledge about cybersecurity

The thing about cyber threats is, the less you and your employees know about them, the more of a threat they become. The best way to tackle them is to ensure that as a company, you stay well informed and in the loop.

If you have a dedicated IT team, consider up-skilling certain members in incident handling through training programmes.

The risk of cyber threats to small businesses can be significant, and statistics have revealed that two thirds of small UK firms were attacked by hackers between 2014-2016.

To manage this threat well you need to stay well informed and ensure that your employees are acting in a conscious way.