Webinar: Cybersecurity center stage in 2025 and beyond

Smart Industry’s Scott Achelpohl joined cybersecurity panelists Frank Balonis, CISO and senior VP of operations at Kiteworks, and Yubico Senior Solutions Architect Josh Cigna on Jan. 29 for a webinar sponsored by cybersecurity and security key and authentication vendor Yubico and moderated by Yubico’s Melanie Greene.

To bring context to the conversation, SI’s managing editor mentioned one 2024 study, the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Report, which noted that manufacturing was the leading target for cyberattacks for the third year in a row last year, accounting for more than 25% of all incidents.

The year before that, in 2023, manufacturers were targeted in 70% of ransomware attacks, according to another study, the Dragos Cybersecurity Year in Review.

The average cost of a data breach in manufacturing surged by 5.4% from 2021 to 2022, according to a 2023 survey by Frank’s Kiteworks, reaching a staggering $4.47 million per breach.

The Jan. 29 only program also touched on recommendations Scott, Frank, and Josh had for the audience, such as updating your systems—to advance your digital transformation as well as meet cybersecurity goals—unifying your cybersecurity plan between your IT and OT teams (as contributor David Montoya of Paessler advised a few months ago), knowing how your company will respond in the event of a cyberattack by conducting cybersecurity “fire drills,” and performing annual cybersecurity assessments.

The panelists were also onboard with these specific strategies:

Implementing zero trust and multifactor authentication
Phishing-resistant authentication
Deployment of segmentation
Establishing visibility and compensating controls for OT assets
Integrating OT into security operations and incident response planning
Embracing OT-specific threat intelligence and security services

Register through the webinar platform, BrightTALK, to view the full video of the program.

Here is a partial transcript of the Jan. 29 program:

Melanie Greene: I'm on the marketing team here at Yubico, and I'll be the moderator for today's session. On behalf of myself and our esteemed panelists, we'd like to thank all of you for attending today's webinar, “Doable and Durable Cyber Defenses for Manufacturers. Frank, I would be delighted to pass it to you first.

Frank Balonis: I'm the chief information security officer at Kiteworks. I've been working with Kiteworks for over 21 years now and in the industry a bit longer and looking forward to the conversation.

Scott Achelpohl: I'm managing editor of Smart Industry, which is that manufacturing technology website. In 2024, we had a lot of coverage of cybersecurity. And we plan even more in 2025, considering its importance. It's going to be a top focus of ours this year. So, this webinar is coming along really at just the right time for us.

A lot of what I have to say today is based on our reporting and from very keen insights of a great many contributors we've had in the last year, including Frank, who I worked with on previous programs. I’m also pleased to be working with Josh for the very first time, so I'm happy to contribute today to the discussion.

Josh Cigna: I'm a senior solutions architect here at Yubico. I've got about 15-plus years of experience in the identity and security space, focused on identity management and authentication. My background in the private space ranges from everything from financial organizations to printing publications/manufacturing organizations.

Here at Yubico, we’re the creators of the ubk, or Yubikey, the best hardware authentication solution on the market. We also believe our mission is to make the Internet a safer place for everybody. It’s really about privacy, about protecting your users both in and outside of work so that we can we can build stronger, more resilient, safer systems for everyone.

MG: This will be an enlightening and impactful conversation. We will talk about cyberthreats that manufacturers face today and get guidance on strengthening your cyber defenses. As we know, manufacturers are integral to society and the manufacturing industry has a variety of verticals. We may have in our audience those who come from high-tech, energy, food, medical, transportation, or others and manufacturing truly as a whole the industry. You have to juggle the IT perspective, but also you have to juggle the OT prospective, and cyberthreats continue to create challenges and make it difficult to tackle. So, let's talk through two the first section, threats and challenges. What do you see in the industry when it comes to IT and OT perspective regarding cybersecurity and what kind of threats are targeting each of those systems?

SA: One 2024 study, the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Report, said manufacturing was the leading target for cyberattacks for the third year in a row, accounting for more than 25% of all incidents. The year before that, 2023, manufacturers were targeted in 70% of ransomware attacks, according to another study, the Dragos Cybersecurity Year in Review.

The average cost of a data breach in manufacturing surged by 5.4% from 2021 to 2022, according to a 2023 survey by Frank’s Kiteworks, reaching a staggering $4.47 million per breach.

And that those costs just continue to rise; they reached a staggering 4.47 million per breach. That's per breach. So, the costs of doing nothing are very high and, unfortunately, a lot of companies do nothing or virtually nothing. In terms of OT and it.

The IT perspective from our reporting is that cybersecurity ought to be its No. 1 concern. That's a challenge, considering that more and more companies are outsourcing their IT most of the time or IT is sourced offsite.