Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management: Three ways manufacturers can set up a successful digital identity protection strategy

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To begin week two of @AuManufacturing’s Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management series, Rana Gupta looks at three risks we face, as well as three identity and access management measures to adopt.

In 2022, Australian manufacturers have a unique opportunity to capitalise on the rise in local demand, extra government incentives and accelerating digitisation.

This is the first time manufacturing employment has been above 1 million jobs since 2009, and the sector is eager for more workers.

But this all comes with higher risks of cyberattacks.

The rush to adapt to changing pandemic conditions has led to more security gaps, and manufacturers are now expecting thousands more users entering and exiting the organisation’s digital systems and applications.

Securing and authenticating all these digital identities will be key to avoid security breaches.

What should manufacturers prepare for in 2022?

1. ‘Business as usual’ mentality could be the biggest risk of all

While digitisation and growth support programs are helping manufacturers work toward a “business as usual” reality, there is no such thing in cybercriminals land.

Hackers will exploit any weakness they can find, and they know that when things go “back to normal” is often when cybersecurity guards are put down.

2. Deepfake AI will gain in popularity

Deepfake technology is now so sophisticated, cybercriminals are starting to carry out far more advanced attacks.

For example, it is now used to impersonate CEOs and key leaders of high-profile organisations. Using AI to clone the voices of business leaders, cybercriminals gain access to company’s bank accounts and sensitive information, which could have devastating consequences.

3. Ransomware attacks will continue to grow, both on personal and enterprise networks

Worryingly, anyone today can become a cyber ransom actor and carry complex, sophisticated threats.

As manufacturers’ corporate workforce has become more mobile and hybrid, and with enterprise networks expanding due to digitisation, we will see a rise in opportunistic attacks where criminals take advantage of unpatched systems and unverified, unauthenticated digital identities.

Three ways to design a successful Identity & Access Management strategy

1. Build a company-wide Zero Trust mindset

A Zero Trust model views trust as a vulnerability: any user or device looking to access confidential data cannot and should not be trusted by default.

Implementing a ‘trust no one, verify everyone’ mindset is a strategic, initiative-based security measure that requires strict and continuous identity verification and control of access to data, systems, and applications.

For it to be effective, it also needs to consider that the strategies implemented to verify may also fail. Therefore, it is important to implement a Zero Trust strategy based on a multi-layered security framework.

2. A collaborative approach involving business leaders

Company leaders have a responsibility to make Zero Trust a business priority and a company-wide mindset.

They should work closely with IT teams to identify who should get access to certain data, which applications are the most critical, and who requires different levels of access and authentication controls.

By fostering collaboration, manufacturers can ensure their overall Identity & Access Management (IAM) strategy keeps evolving as the business changes and grows.

Finally, leaders have a responsibility to help educate their workforce – from the factories to the corporate head office – about the importance of securing digital identities.

3. A platform approach allowing for multiple authentication journeys

With hybrid workforces, manufacturers now have hundreds, oftentimes thousands of users accessing the organisation’s systems and applications every day, all needing their digital identities verified and authenticated.

IAM architectures need to evolve to make it easy to manage and implement all digital identities, processes, and technologies knowing that each requires different authentication journeys.

Production floor employees may not have any access to smartphones or hardware authenticators, whereas backend operations teams may need to access these systems from remote environments.

Rather than implementing multiple solutions and vendors (which adds complexity and costs), consider opting for a platform approach that includes a wide range of security and access management controls (two-factor authentication, encryption, key management, etc).

Some manufacturers are already leading the way. For example, Brother has worked with Thales to secure their workforce, making it extra easy for employees to securely authenticate themselves, reducing administration burden for IT teams, as well as reducing costs, operational requirements and expenses by 40 percent.

Thales also helped a global auto ancillary giant strengthen their access management approach by differentiating access for different user (and application) layers depending on the sensitivity of their responsibilities in the organisation. They are now able to easily monitor, allow/disallow and provision who accesses what, how and when.

Until businesses place the protection of digital identities at the heart of their cybersecurity practice, processes and mindset, hackers will continue to have the upper hand. Embedding a Zero Trust mindset and implementing a strong IAM strategy can prevent manufacturers from becoming the next preventable cybercrime casualty in 2022.

Picture: www.csoonline.com

For more information about how you can kick-start or improve your digital identities protection journey, please visit Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing (CPL)’s website or get in touch with one of Thales’ experts today.

Rana Gupta is APAC Regional VP, Authentication & Encryption, Thales

@AuManufacturing’s Cybersecurity – Identity and Access Management series is brought to you through the support of Thales Cloud Protection & Licensing (CPL).