"The food and beverage industry has become a lucrative target for threat actors. Both are critical components of economies and, for many nations, they now represent a national security threat if compromised."
Like other manufacturing sectors, the prospect of operational downtime is a scenario Food & Beverage manufacturers want to avoid at all costs, each hour of downtime incurs significant losses in deferred or spoiled product. Preventing downtime while maintaining OT data integrity is a major challenge.
Closer IT/OT convergence has improved connectivity and process efficiency, but also broadened the attack surface. Without robust controls and defensible architectures, attacks originating in Enterprise IT can cascade into OT, risking consumer safety and production continuity.
A threat actor using a remote-access Trojan to manipulate DCS or SCADA systems could alter processing temperatures, causing widespread foodborne illness, or trigger unsafe machine…
Cyber intruders can exfiltrate recipes and process IP, selling it on the dark web or to competitors, causing reputational and financial damage.
An expanding attack surface from IT/OT convergence, connectivity and organizational complexity, exacerbated by a lack of OT risk management, increases exposure. Heightened regulatory scrutiny of critical national resource assets forces F&B manufacturers to reassess cyber…
A threat actor using a remote-access Trojan to manipulate DCS or SCADA systems could alter processing temperatures, causing widespread foodborne illness, or trigger unsafe machine behavior endangering workers. Cyber intruders can exfiltrate recipes and process IP, selling it on…
For organizations with little or no OT risk program, we recommend a holistic two-phase approach:
Identify critical OT functions (e.g. dosing pumps, packaging conveyors) and assess potential cyber impacts. Leverage custodians and engineers to map realistic attack paths: covering architecture, access, third-party scope, supply chain and physical security.
Establish a formal OT-CSF with policies, procedures and playbooks aligned to: Typical elements: Formal governance model (RACI roles), End-to-end operating model, Regulatory compliance mapping, Asset inventory, Network architecture documentation, Incident response plan.
These services are best suited to address the OT risks in this industry.