October 2019
Y
our business could be just one poor decision
away from collapse. For all the good you do —
innovating products, creating jobs, investing in the
community — it can all disappear with a click of
a button.
“Manufacturers have seen a substantial rise in
cyber security threats and ransomware attempts in
recent years. There’s a general fear across the industry
because of what these kinds of attacks can do to a
business,” said Chuck Hadden, MMA president &
CEO. “It’s become clear that cyber criminals are
either many steps ahead or only a step behind today’s
most innovative security strategies. You can’t stop
every attack and that might be the scariest thing
about cyber threats — any single one could be the
one that puts you out of business.”
Cyber attacks can come seemingly out of nowhere.
One minute everything is running smoothly and the
next you’re facing system crashes, lost intellectual
property or customer data, or are locked out altogether.
Depending on the size of your business, the time
it takes to recover from an attack or to rebuild a brand
reputation may be too much to overcome. Consider
the following facts:
• The average data breach will cost a
U.S. manufacturer $7.91 million
• On average, it takes manufacturers
197 days to identify a data breach
• Six out of 10 small and mid-sized
businesses go out of business within
six months of being hacked
In the 21 st century, cyber crime has become one
of the single largest threats to your business and
many manufacturers remain ill-prepared to face it.
“I don’t know if anything poses a greater long-
term risk to manufacturers today than the threat of
cyber crime,” said Phil Sponsler, president of
Orbitform and recipient of the 2017 John G. Thodis
Michigan Manufacturer of the Year Award. “When
I talk to fellow business leaders it isn’t just the
current risks that they fear — they are seeing what’s
down the road. Manufacturing is already one of the
top-targeted industries for cyber threats and we’re
an industry becoming more reliant on technology
every day. That can be very good for our future but
it opens the door to more and more dangers if we
aren’t prepared.”
To help manufacturers prepare and protect
themselves from these dangers, MMA has partnered
with Application Specialist Kompany (ASK) to
provide a solution with a special discount to members.
MMA’s Cyber Threat Protection, powered by ASK,
is a one-of-a-kind, all-encompassing, threat detection
and response system to help you protect your
company, your employees and your customers.
“Manufacturers need access to a solutions provider
that offers constant monitoring and the ability to
MiMfg Magazine
adapt and stay on pace with cyber criminals as
businesses become more digital and technology
continues to advance,” explained Hadden. “ASK
showed us that they have the potential to be that
solutions provider. They have the experience. They
have the security tools. They are right for manufac-
turers of all sizes. And the members who have
worked with them, believe in them.”
With everything you’ve built at stake, can you
afford not to protect yourself from the threat lurking
in the shadows to tear it all down?
MMA Cyber Threat Protection (powered by ASK)
MMA members now have access to ASK’s comprehensive
technology and cyber security solutions to stay protected
from the daily threats that endanger their businesses.
Sign-up now to receive a 10% discount off standard pricing
for ASK Security Solutions. See mimfg.org for details.
Understanding the Threat:
What is it and what can you do?
The first challenge is understanding how big the
risk is. The facts outlined above only tell part of the
story and many business leaders can be numb to the
threat until it hits and, by then, it is too late.
“In the simplest terms, a security threat is anything
originating from outside of your walls that is designed
to bring harm or cause damage to your business,”
explained Mike Maddox, president and CEO of
Lansing-based ASK. “But cyber attacks are not
simple. They can take many forms — denial of
service attacks (designed to make systems unusable),
phishing (e-mail compromise), ransomware (designed
to extort money) — and can vary in the time it takes
to infiltrate a system, its effectiveness and the
amount of scorched earth it leaves behind.”
Executives must understand that implementing
a risk mitigation strategy should not just be an IT
function. Cyber security puts the survival of your
business at stake and your strategy to face it should
be driven from the top.
“Like all successful business plans, yours
must commit to adequate planning, goal setting,
communication, buy-in from executives and staff,
implementation, testing and validation,” said Maddox.
“Many companies do not have adequate internal
resources to conduct this all on their own. ASK is a
trusted partner that can deliver value and expertise.”
But how does a cyber attack start?
“The story of nearly every cyber attack starts one
of two ways — with human error or human intent,”
said Maddox.
It can be the innocent act of clicking a link, filling
out a form or not asking the right questions. It can
also be the intentional effort to infiltrate a system
or bypass a process. In either instance, the
17