Cyber Security and its far-reaching shadow over our Manufacturing Sector

This post is the first in a series of blog posts written by Roy Seaman, our Percy Hobart Fellowship 2021 fellow from the Royal Marines. We’re calling the series “Posting Roy”

The COVID pandemic will go down as one of those memorable moments in history that has made its mark on the working world. Forcing the working world to transform from a traditional working model to a remote working model and likely to form a hybrid model going forward into the future. It is fair to say the cyber criminal’s world has been made much easier to operate in if businesses fail to address the very real cyber threat that is out there. The unforeseen short disruptive transformation from a traditional working model to a remote model has meant that focus has switched to tech to maintain business operations. This has meant a reliance on bringing your own device (BYOD) which subsequently means an increase in vulnerable pathways that cyber-criminal activity has been able to exploit.

Bridewell Consulting commissioned the “CNI Cyber Report: Risk and Resilience” which found that 86% of CNI organisations have detected and experienced operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) cyber attack over 2020. Ninety-three percent of organisations admit to at least one successful attempt and 24% more than 5 successful attacks. Given that only 42% of OT/ICS environments are not accessible from the internet and only 28% are confident their OT systems are protected the numbers aren’t all that surprising. Eighty-five percent of decision-makers have felt an increase in pressure to improve cybersecurity control for the OT/ICS environment over the last 12 months. The Enterprise Strategy Group research insight paper “Threat Detection and Response in Manufacturing, Current and Future Use Cases for Deception Technology” states that 49% of organisations claim that IT and OT are tightly integrated. The irony is 84% of CNI organisations predict a cybersecurity skills shortage within 3 -5 years, 32% reduced their cybersecurity budget over the COVID period and experienced a 50% increase in attacks during the pandemic. The knock-on effect on the manufacturing sector is huge. 

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2020 Annual Manufacturing Report identifies that 90% of consumer goods manufacturers prioritise digital transformation as a top 3 concern. Eighty-seven percent of manufacturers believe digital manufacturing technologies (smart factory technologies) will accelerate innovation and design development and 89% believe it will improve supply chain relationships. Seventy-one percent said they are already bringing OT and IT together to digitise their business. Cloud computing will be a big part of the digital transformation making data that is real-time use and disruptive technologies such as the Internet of things (IoT) to make a “new experience” for employees and customer experience. This means the challenge of maintaining secure cyber domains will be made even more complex and will become critical in all parts of business operations.  The cyber criminals ability to operate is growing and is currently faster at innovating according to the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report.

Finally, if the UK manufacturing sector is going to transform and aspire to be world-leading innovators, it needs to embrace integrated smart factory technology and the cybersecurity risks that ensue. For success to occur businesses need to prioritise cybersecurity; to lead the way for following innovative technology. When you compare the two reports we can see attitudes towards cybersecurity need to improve and the pandemic has shone a light on weaknesses within the sector. The National Cyber Security Centres (NCSC) Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP)  has a good basis showing the UK government recognises the cyber threat needs to be tackled as a collaborative. Businesses need to ensure their organisations are doing their part and taking the necessary precautions to beat cyber criminals. 

Thales NDEC is now a Friend of Awen

Awen is proud to announce a friendship and partnership with the Thales National Digital Exploitation Centre.

The National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC) is an exciting collaboration between Thales, Welsh Government and the University of South Wales. A partnership focusing on digital and cyber security project delivery, education and research. Supporting local and regional businesses, schools and individuals in their digital endeavours, helping to position Wales as a global player in the tech industry.

Awen and NDEC are beginning a journey of exploration to find ways to best collaborate. To begin, Awen will be partnering with NDEC for demonstrations of Dot software on live environments within NDECs OT Cyber Range. Together we will be able to show critical national infrastructure organisations, manufacturers and the defence sector our capabilities to decrease cyber risk and increase cyber resilience within Operational Technology environments, and to do so at scale.

For more information about NDEC please visit their website.

For more details about Awen, please do browse our website and feel free to get in contact.

Life disrupted by cyber attacks

Cofounder & CEO of Awen Collective, Daniel Lewis, explains the motives behind Awen Collective.

One thing that I am often asked is “why did you set up the company?” and the answer really is multi-faceted:

First, Andrew and I found an opportunity in the market. Combined, we had been doing digital forensics on IT systems for years, but we had found that, more-and-more, we were being asked to perform investigations on embedded systems, IoT and on Operational Technologies (OT). Unlike IT forensic investigations, there needs to be an entirely different approach to digital forensics & incident response for industrial control systems, IoT networks and embedded systems. You can’t just repurpose IT software and IT digital forensics approaches. Awen Collective was really created in order to develop the tools and techniques to assist in the response to cyber attacks, and other incidents, on complex networks of digital devices. Andrew decided to take a different direction and provide services solutions, whereas I continued by building a team to primarily provide product solutions.

Secondly, it was the right time for me personally. I had worked in professional roles such as software engineering and data science. I had previously undertaken interesting business-focused things such as technology evangelism and tech events planning. I had been through academia with my PhD research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and cyber-physical security, and I had my researcher role in cyber-security and digital forensics. I was looking for something new, something where I could take the theory, match it with market need (or “market pull”) and actually develop market-ready software solutions using my own experiences in professional software engineering, business and academic cyber-security. This desire to provide production-quality solutions to market, was then accelerated by the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) who gave me the initial inspirations and skills required to turn it into a growing business.

Thirdly, and definitely not finally, it was the acknowledgement that the software that we could (and are) building at Awen could really have an impact on society. Acknowledging that our software solutions, whether off-the-shelf or more bespoke, are all about improving the operational resilience of critical national infrastructures, advanced manufacturers and building automation & control system owners. This organisational resilience then improves supply chain resilience, and importantly improves societal/community resilience.

Taking the technical aspects out of the equation for a moment. As people - people in contemporary societies and communities - we rely on services. These services are critical to the day-to-day functioning of our societies and communities. Infrastructure such as drinking and waste water, electricity, oil & gas (both home/office supply, but also petrol & diesel), chemical production, transport (in the form of road, rail, air and marine), healthcare (regardless of public or private), financial services and so much more – also including food & drink manufacturing, agriculture, pharmaceuticals manufacturing. The list just goes on and on. These services are all in one big, and complex, interdependent network.

In the UK, you only have to look at the recent power-cuts through the electricity grid (on Friday 9th August 2019). Not only did homes and offices have no light or electricity - it caused transportation to come to a standstill, including on overground and underground trains in London. It also caused hospitals to set-up emergency back-up systems. All because two of the larger electricity generators (one gas powered, and one offshore wind powered) had faults at roughly the same time. One cannot imagine the full disruption that fault had to peoples lives and businesses, and then there is implicit and explicit economic damage too.

You see, in contemporary society, we rely heavily on these systems and services. Ensuring the organisations which own and manage these critical services and systems are doing their very best to understand their cyber risk, and are prepared for responding to cyber attacks or other digital incidents, is absolutely fundamental.

Awen was started to assist with the whole digital forensics and incident response lifecycle, and we feel that we are making a positive impact. Minimising the disruption to society, by improving operational resilience and business continuity, by producing software.

 Feel free to get in touch by email: hello@awencollective.com