Kenya Cyber Security Report 2015 Cyber Security Perspective from the Manufacturing Sector George Okwach | Head of Audit, Crown Paints Limited T here is surprisingly very little being done about cyber with crime because security in the manufacturing sector in the region. monitoring tools even if This lends from the notion that manufacturing’s core they exist are not being business is too far hidden from the interest of cyber criminals. checked, users lack the Manufacturing industry uses sophisticated software and other know how of what to look for and most managers are just too heavy ICT investments to drive their processes. Most of these busy with top line growth to bother. systems are in the field of view of cyber criminals. Employee’s behaviour through their interaction with the company’s data and network using various devices, user accounts and passwords makes an organisation vulnerable to attacks. There is need for the manufacturing industry stakeholders to pay more interest to the effects of cyber-crime in this sector through sharing of information on attacks, annual estimates of losses and how to mitigate cybercrime. In Kenya and essentially the region, the issues of concern include; 1. How well proprietary assets like patents and formulations are protected. Most companies surprisingly spend tens of millions of dollars in marketing their products and almost nothing in keeping their patents safe from criminals. It doesn’t take a casual intruder to run a second shift using your formulation secrets and scattering your top line. 3. Assigning monitoring mechanisms to the systems, processes and people that manage your critical assets and information. It is wrong to think that once an SLA has been signed, penalty clauses will keep everything within bounds. The problem with this back seat approach is that promises fall below specifications 4. Most companies in the region were founded on and continue to ride on cheap labour as a major incentive to invest. What we have seen in industry is employees learning a lot and using this knowledge for sinister acts. 5. Industrial warehouses that double as corporate headquarters often provide little access control mechanisms that distinguish the casual labourer/ contractor and a white collar techie. To “get the job done” managers and directors have given up bothering and have allowed intruders into sensitive areas and offices to their detriment. The information these intruders gather easily gets used for cyber and other crimes at costly consequences. In the current age of cyber Security, business owners need take a long term view and segregate Industrial plants and manufacturing areas from sensitive managerial desks where strategy and business development plans are negotiated and manipulated. There is need for the manufacturing industry stakeholders to pay more interest to the effects of cyber crime in this sector through sharing of information on attacks, annual estimates of losses and how to mitigate cybercrime and there are countless breaches on data and security without any of these being detected. Cyber criminals easily get away 35