The Industrial Internet Of Things – Potential Cyber Threats Consequences

Mr. Chuck Brooks – one of the world’s most known experts and the cyber security guru, shares his thoughts about Industry 4.0 and cyber threats in an interview with Ludmila Morozova-Buss.

As the capabilities and connectivity of cyber devices have grown exponentially, so have the cyber intrusions and threats from malware and hackers requiring restructuring of priorities and missions.

According to Chuck Brooks, a successful 4.0 cyber threat consequences strategy requires stepping up assessing situational awareness, information sharing, and especially resilience. Cyber resilience is an area that must be further developed both in processes and technologies because no matter what, breaches will happen.

Currently, Ransomware mostly via Phishing activities is the top threat. In the recent past, 2014 code vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed, Shellshock, Wirelurke, POODLE and other open source repositories caused chaos and harm. There is a growing understanding the seriousness and sophistication of the threats, especially denial of service and the adversarial actors that include states, organized crimes, and loosely affiliated hackers.

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In the US, most (approximately 85%) of the cybersecurity critical infrastructure including defense, oil, and gas, electric power grids, healthcare, utilities, communications, transportation, banking, and finance is owned by the private sector and regulated by the public sector. DHS has recognized the importance of private sector input into cyber security requirements across these verticals and along with NIST in developing a strategy to ameliorate shortcomings.

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The Strategic Grid, in the US and Europe, is in great need for enhanced security. An accelerated effort to fund and design new technologies to protect the utilities from natural or man-made electromagnetic surges; further, harden hardware and software in SCADA networks from cyber-attack, and provide enhanced physical security for the grid.

Mobile management that involves securing millions of BYOD devices is currently a challenge for information security both in government and in the private sector. Cloud computing has also taken center stage and securing cloud applications. There is always a need for better encryption, biometrics, smarter analytics and automated network security in all categories.

Supercomputing, machine learning, and quantum computing technologies are an exciting area of current exploration that may remedy many of the threats.

Chuck’s Brooks list of future cyber security 4.0 priorities includes:

• Internet of Things (society on new verge of exponential interconnectivity)

• Wearables

• Drones and Robots

• Artificial intelligence

• Smart Cities

• Connected transportation

The full interview by Ludmila Morozova-Buss can be read here.

Editor’s Note: This Article originally appeared on IIOT World, and is featured here with Author permission.