Five steps SMEs can take to be more cyber secure
Drawing on his experience, Sam Silva, IMCRC’s Finance and IT Manager outlines five steps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should consider when preparing their business against cybersecurity threats.
As the manufacturing industry becomes increasingly automated and interconnected, it also becomes more vulnerable to debilitating cyber-attacks.
At the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), we’ve operated as a fully digital and cloud-based business since day one. The nature of our work requires us to prepare and continually share sensitive data with our industry, research and government partners. Thus, it has been essential for us to put in place simple but effective measures to minimise and hopefully prevent common cyber security incidents.
As a business owner or operator, addressing cybersecurity threats may not be as high on your list as other priorities. But consider what would happen to your manufacturing business if production suddenly halted, or your valuable intellectual property (IP) was stolen, or you lost all your customer and sales data? These are the very real consequences of cybercrime.
With this in mind, here are five steps that can be taken to instil a culture of cybersecurity with your business and help fortify it against cybersecurity threats.
- Know your data and where it is store
- Know your risk exposure and compliance obligations
- Set up a framework of policies and procedures
- Engage a third-party advisor
- Educate your staff on cyber threats