{"id":31129,"date":"2020-10-15T14:54:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T14:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dvirc.org\/insights\/suspicious-minds-non-technical-signs-your-business-might-have-been-hacked\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T14:01:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:01:37","slug":"suspicious-minds-non-technical-signs-your-business-might-have-been-hacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dvirc.org\/insights\/suspicious-minds-non-technical-signs-your-business-might-have-been-hacked\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspicious Minds: Non-Technical Signs Your Business Might Have Been Hacked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Pat Toth<\/em><\/p>\n

I grew up in the outer suburbs of New York City. My dad commuted to the city for work, as did most of our neighbors, but as kids we rarely went into the city. An occasional field trip to a museum, seeing the tree in Rockefeller Center, or a family outing to a ballgame had been the extent of my urban experience. One year for Christmas, my sister, my cousin and I received tickets to see the Broadway show \u201cGrease.\u201d\u00a0 For the first time, we would be allowed to travel on the train and see the show without our parents.<\/p>\n

A whole day in New York without supervision! For young teenagers, it was a thrilling prospect, but we received strict orders to \u201ckeep our eyes open and trust no one.\u201d We had a wonderful time, besides a minor mishap figuring out where to catch the train to come home (my cousin insisted the same train would be waiting for us on the same track \u2013 he was wrong), it was the first of many adventures in NYC.<\/p>\n

The most memorable thing for me was learning that observing your environment is an important part of staying safe.<\/p>\n

That lesson learned years ago is also important in cybersecurity. Even if your employees have no technical understanding of information technology, they can help identify signs that your business may have been hacked.<\/p>\n

Know the Signs<\/h2>\n

Contracts your company used to receive on a regular basis are now going to a competitor. A new competitor suddenly bursts onto the scene making a very difficult-to-manufacture part that resembles your product. Company monthly energy usage is increasing but you haven\u2019t increased production hours. You haven\u2019t received payment from a customer who always pays invoices within 60 days.<\/p>\n

Each of these scenarios is a possible sign that your manufacturing business might have been hacked. Often the first detection of a cyber hack is an employee noticing that something isn\u2019t quite right. This could be their system running unusually slow or a change in their password or other credentials that they did not make.<\/p>\n

Small and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) are prime targets for cyber-attacks, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, because many do not have adequate preventive measures in place. Manufacturing is the second most targeted industry. According to Accenture, only\u00a014 percent of small businesses<\/a>\u00a0are prepared to defend themselves against cyber threats.<\/p>\n

Traditional Cyber Threats and Tactics<\/h2>\n

Cyber criminals often use\u00a0ransomware<\/a>\u00a0tactics to shut down manufacturing operations or to alter production processes so that faulty products are manufactured. Honda recently was forced to\u00a0temporarily shut down global operations\u00a0<\/a>due to a ransomware attack at its headquarters. GPS giant Garmin recently had its operations suspended for almost a week, and multiple sources reported it faced a $10 million ransomware attack.<\/p>\n

That said, many successful cyber-attacks against small manufacturers are not this visible or dramatic. These attacks play out in a long, slow process, managing to avoid detection. For example, evidence of a cyber-attack that infiltrated your sensitive contract information or intellectual property (IP) may not emerge for months or even years. Likewise, you may not notice when someone steals information from your customer database.<\/p>\n

If You Can\u2019t Explain a Change in Dynamics, It Might Be Cyber Related<\/h2>\n

You don\u2019t need an IT background to keep checks on cybersecurity threats. A good rule of thumb is for employees to report any noticeable changes or anomalies in operations. For example, a decrease in production quality could arise from compromised industrial control systems.<\/p>\n

If you suddenly have a harder time winning or retaining contracts, someone might have hacked into your financial system and figured out how to underbid you. IP theft could result in a new competitor making an identical product, or thieves might be going after an operational plan for a part or component.<\/p>\n

Energy and data usage fluctuations also have been linked to cybercrimes. A large increase in your energy cost could indicate malicious activity. Fluctuation in data usage may indicate that someone is taking over your computer network during overnight hours for crypto mining, which requires excessive processing power. You can \u201clend\u201d your computer\u2019s processing power to a crypto mining service for revenue, or an outlaw cyber organization might just take it.<\/p>\n

A hacker could change the routing numbers on the account where your customers send payments. A customer unknowingly pays the cyber criminals the money owed to you. If you are not monitoring your accounts closely it may be months before you notice the theft occurring.<\/p>\n

The Connected Shop Floor Provides More Portals for Attacks<\/h2>\n

Manufacturers\u2019 growing dependence on technology and data as drivers of productivity and efficiency puts greater demands on their cybersecurity infrastructure. The more connected your shop floor is with automation, sensors, monitors and control systems, the more vulnerable you are to cyber threats.<\/p>\n

The manufacturing technology mix includes IT (including networks and business-side software such as email, finance and ERPs) and OT (operational technology, such as machines and control systems). SMMs traditionally have been challenged by how to manage cybersecurity concerns for a variety of reasons:<\/p>\n