60% of Manufacturers Expect Full Digitalization Within 2 Years, but Security Concerns Remain

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According to industry trends on the 31st, Kaspersky, together with VDC Strategy, released the report "Cyber Resilience, Built for Manufacturing." Based on a survey of more than 250 OT and IT decision-makers in manufacturing, energy, transportation, and logistics, the report examines the current state of digital transformation in OT environments and the factors hindering it.

According to the report, manufacturing companies are pursuing digitalization across factories and production networks to increase output and improve quality consistency. However, only 9% have achieved full digitalization. By contrast, 60% expect to complete full digital transformation within 2 years, indicating a broader push toward digitalization among manufacturing companies.

Cybersecurity was identified as the biggest obstacle to digital transformation in industrial OT environments. As a result, the report points to a growing need for OT security alongside the expansion of digitalization among manufacturing companies.

The top driver behind manufacturing companies' digital transformation was improved production efficiency at 24%. That was followed by lower operating and production costs at 15%, the creation of new strategic opportunities at 14%, and stronger cyber resilience at 13%.

However, digitally connected OT and IT environments were identified as a source of cybersecurity problems. As data exchange takes place among machines, production lines, and factory control layers, interdependence grows, which increases the impact of system failures and expands the points exposed to attack.

This has translated into the biggest concerns and barriers to adoption for manufacturing companies' digitalization. The largest obstacle was cybersecurity-related concerns at 38.1%, while the top cybersecurity issue hindering digital technology adoption was a lack of security measures in existing infrastructure at 49.3%. This was followed by insufficient OT cybersecurity budgets and staff at 47.8%, and aging protocols and legacy systems, which were cited as a digitalization roadblock by 41%.

Because OT environments are highly sensitive to safety and availability, and because a sudden shutdown of production facilities can cause financial losses from process stoppages and even potential harm to human life, there is a tendency to be less proactive about patching vulnerabilities than in IT environments. In fact, 38.1% of respondents said they have difficulty keeping OT patches up to date.

Meanwhile, manufacturing companies continue to suffer damage from cyber incidents amid constraints such as workforce shortages, budget shortages, and outdated legacy systems. Fifty-nine percent of respondents estimated financial losses at more than USD 1 million per cyberattack, and the average operational downtime caused by a cyber incident was 15.3 hours. The survey also found that the costs of incident response were higher for production stoppages, delivery delays, and related fines than for forensic costs.

Despite the widening security issues, operating structures remain mismatched. Many companies manage OT and IT separately, and among the companies surveyed, 59% said the IT department leads OT security policy. Companies where OT and IT are on equal footing accounted for 25%, while companies led by the OT department accounted for 16%.

Kaspersky said integrated cybersecurity governance in OT environments is necessary to build a mature cybersecurity framework. It explained that OT cybersecurity management standards should be aligned with the same standards used for reliability and quality management as digital sophistication advances. It also stressed the need to strengthen cyber resilience.

As indicators for improving cyber resilience, Kaspersky cited recovery time, the security coverage of legacy assets, and preparedness for performance degradation. Lee Hyo-eun, head of Kaspersky Korea, said many domestic factories have made digital transformation their top priority while neglecting on-site OT security. She added that cybersecurity is not merely about compliance, but a core element of stable production and sustainable business operations.

Andrey Strelkov, head of Kaspersky's industrial cybersecurity product line, identified minimizing operational impact and enabling rapid recovery as key factors in OT security. He said Kaspersky provides an integrated security ecosystem that covers IT, OT, and IIoT security. He added that this helps manufacturing companies pursue safe digital transformation.

Source: IT DAILY · Kim Ho-jun
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241313

References

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