While some Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies have flourished during COVID-19 — think grocery, food, and health product providers — others have floundered. Yet, all face daunting challenges. Cyberattacks are increasingly commonplace and costly, interconnected OT and IT systems can jeopardize industrial control systems, and evolving public-safety requirements demand agility.
Challenge:
To overcome these hurdles, one Fortune 500 consumer food manufacturer needed a clear understanding of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities to its OT and IT networks. Complicating matters, the company had acquired dozens of food businesses over the past two decades, each with disparate technology and security ecosystems.
As a result, the manufacturer lacked a centralized, real-time view into the security of systems across its 46 global manufacturing sites. Achieving transparency would require a standard, risk-based security strategy and unified threat management capabilities.
Solution:
Collaborating with the company’s head of cybersecurity and working with Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork Partner Claroty, Rockwell Automation designed and deployed centralized threat detection services across 46 global manufacturing sites. This helped establish an organizational-wide baseline of network activity and allowed continuous threat monitoring for unusual activity that could indicate cyberattacks before they occur without disrupting operations. Real-time threat detection solutions allow security teams to have a consistent, accurate, view of what their network looks like and ultimately save thousands of dollars in potential downtime and production loss.
Now, if a breach occurs, a custom workflow helps recover compromised systems and networks. And because employee training is elemental to effective security, a program was implemented to foster an enterprise-wide culture of cybersecurity hygiene.
Results:
Today, this food manufacturer currently has centralized and unified threat management systems in place to help minimize cybersecurity risks by expanding visibility from IT into the OT environment, detecting and acting on cyber threats before they become breaches. Employees have new cybersecurity awareness resulting from the enterprise-wide training program.
Going forward, the company is positioned to implement consistent cybersecurity programs as it continues to grow through future acquisitions.
