The RS portfolio of cybersecurity
infrastructure essential to protecting industrial medical and
pharmaceutical manufacturing networks from cyberattacks that could
lead to production losses, new drug development delays, and data
loss or theft includes industrial routers, managed Ethernet
switches, and protocol converters equipped with robust security
features.
FORT
WORTH, Texas, Oct. 2, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- RS, a trading brand of RS Group plc (LSE:
RS1), a global provider of industrial product and service
solutions, offers a comprehensive suite of advanced solutions
designed to address the key challenges faced by customers in the
medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, including
cybersecurity threats.
The benefits of implementing Industry 4.0 technologies like
intelligent automation systems and IIoT devices in medical
manufacturing facilities are abundant and include improved
efficiencies, flexibility, safety, productivity, and profitability.
But these technologies rely on densely populated networks that
integrate information technology (IT) and operational technology
(OT), and the fact of the matter is that every piece of connected
technology introduces another point of vulnerability to
cybersecurity attacks.
As the medical manufacturing industry contends with the
digitization and digitalization trends fueled by Industry 4.0, the
IIoT, and IT/OT convergence — converting analog information into
digital formats and leveraging digital technologies to transform
processes — effective cybersecurity becomes increasingly
imperative. But since these risks are relatively new, they're not
always an obvious concern — much less a primary concern — until
it's too late. And at that point, the resulting costs, reputation
damage, and regulatory penalties can be devastating, especially for
an industry facing fierce competition and rapidly eroding profit
margins.
Cyberattacks targeting smart manufacturing facilities are
steadily increasing in proportion to the ubiquity of networked
technologies. A 2017 study conducted by Kaspersky1
revealed that roughly one out of every three internet connection
sharing (ICS) computers subjected to a cyberattack was part of an
industrial automation system. Similarly, a 2019 survey about OT
security challenges2 conducted by the Ponemon Institute
and Tenable found that 90% of the 701 global IT and IT security
decision-makers polled said that their organizations had
experienced at least one damaging IT or OT cyberattack in the
previous 24 months and 62% had experienced two or more. Today,
hackers frequently succeed in exploiting vulnerabilities in IIoT
networks to gain access to company data and infrastructure.
Ransomware and data loss or theft are the most common types of
cyberattacks in the industrial manufacturing industry. In 2021, the
average ransomware incident caused more than 20 days3 of
disruption to affected businesses, and while downtime of that
magnitude would be costly for any manufacturer, it can be
especially costly for medical manufacturers.
The medical manufacturing industry is also highly susceptible to
inflated costs resulting from lost or stolen data. Historian data
and batch records are essential for determining and verifying the
results of manufacturing trials and ensuring the safety of the
patients using the treatment. So, losing the ability to verify
production processes can cost medical manufacturers millions of
dollars in product losses. For example, one of the most devastating
cyberattacks in history4, the NotPetya attacks of 2017,
cost American multinational pharmaceutical company Merck a total of
$1.4 billion in related
losses5. And while those losses were undeniably
astronomical, stolen medical manufacturing data can be even more
costly than lost data.
Implementing effective cybersecurity solutions can improve the
resiliency of industrial medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing
networks and prevent cyberattacks that could lead to production
losses, new drug development delays, and the loss or theft of
crucial operating and development data.
RS offers a comprehensive suite of advanced
solutions designed to address the key challenges faced by
customers in the medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing
industries, including cybersecurity threats. Our strong supplier
relationships and omnichannel capabilities provide medical
manufacturers with a distinct competitive advantage and empower
them to get compliant, enhance productivity, optimize efficiency,
reduce downtime, ensure data integrity, and improve both time to
market and quality.
The RS portfolio of industrial cybersecurity infrastructure
includes industrial routers, managed Ethernet switches, and
protocol converters that incorporate robust security features
ranging from firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and access
controls to intrusion prevention and detection, industrial protocol
filtering, port security, and encryption — all of which is
essential to an effective defense-in-depth (DiD) cybersecurity
strategy.
Industrial routers equipped with integrated security
features like configurable firewalls, secure VPN connections, and
access control lists help protect industrial networks from
cybersecurity threats. For example, Phoenix Contact's FL mGuard
security routers facilitate efficient and secure communication
with the local network and provide a flexible and scalable solution
for network infrastructure management. The series is equipped with
stateful inspection firewalls and network address translation,
anti-spoofing, anti-virus, and stealth mode features. It also
supports high data throughput of roughly 1,000Mb/s, which is
essential for satisfying the real-time data demands of monitoring
and control processes in pharmaceutical manufacturing applications,
and enables easy and efficient system configuration, maintenance,
and operation backed by long-term software maintenance, regular
updates, and security patches.
Managed switches facilitate communication between Ethernet
devices and allow users to configure, manage, and monitor traffic
on a local area network (LAN) and control how data travels over the
network and who can access it. They also offer security features
that unmanaged switches can't. Moxa's EDS-408A Series Layer 2,
eight-port, entry-level managed switches are especially designed
for industrial applications like medical manufacturing. The series
provides industrial-grade reliability, network redundancy, and
security features based on the IEC 62443 standard and support a
variety of useful management functions, including Turbo Ring, Turbo
Chain, ring coupling, internet group management protocol (IGMP)
snooping, IEEE 802.1Q VLAN, port-based VLAN, QoS, remote
monitoring, bandwidth management, port mirroring for online
debugging, and email or relay warnings.
Protocol converters enable interoperability between devices
or systems with incompatible communication protocols by converting
one communication protocol to another. They're essential for
bringing legacy production equipment into IIoT networks and
supporting predictive maintenance strategies but could introduce
serious vulnerabilities into production networks if they're not
equipped with integrated security features. Red Lion's DA10D and DA30D protocol
conversion and data acquisition systems allow users to unlock
valuable data from legacy equipment and share it with production
networks and enterprise or cloud platforms. They communicate with
over 300 protocols to easily convert between serial and Ethernet
devices in multi-vendor environments with ease, exhibit rugged
resistance to shock, vibration, and a wide range of operating
temperatures, and offer optional real-time data, event, and
security logging with cryptographic signature support.
For more information about the RS portfolio of medical
manufacturing solutions, as well as expert insights into and advice
about medical and pharmaceutical industry applications,
please check out the new "Cybersecurity and the Medical
Manufacturing Industry" RS Expert Advice article and visit the
links embedded here. For assistance identifying, procuring,
deploying, and maintaining cybersecurity solutions that can
effectively reduce the risks inherent to your smart medical
manufacturing facilities and protect you from the all-to-common and
often devastatingly expensive ramifications of a successful
cyberattack, please contact your local RS representative at
1.866.433.5722 or reach out to our technical product support
team.
About RS in the Americas
In the Americas region,
RS stocks more than 250,000 industrial and electronic products from
more than 700 trusted suppliers. These solutions cover categories
extending from automation and control equipment to interconnect,
passive, active, and electromechanical components and include more
than 80,000 high-quality, competitively priced RS
PRO products. For more information, please visit
https://us.rs-online.com or connect with us via social media
on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
About RS Group
RS Group plc provides product and
service solutions that help our customers design, build, maintain,
repair, and operate industrial equipment and operations, safely and
sustainably. We stock more than 750,000 industrial and electronic
products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a
wide range of product and service solutions to 1.1 million
customers.
We support customers across the product lifecycle, whether via
innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving
time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing
purchasing costs and optimizing inventory in the maintenance,
repair, and operation phase. We offer our customers tailored
product and service propositions that are essential for the
successful operation of their businesses and help them save time
and money.
RS Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with stock
ticker RS1 and in the year ended 31 March
2023 reported revenue of £2,982 million.
For more information, please visit
https://www.rsgroup.com/ or connect with us on
LinkedIn or Twitter.
Image Download:
https://rb.gy/252o6
References: 1. A 2017 study conducted by Kaspersky, 2. A
2019 survey about OT security challenges, 3. More than 20 days, 4.
The most devastating cyberattacks in history, 5. $1.4 billion in related losses
Editorial Contact & Media Inquiries:
Karen Gavenda, RS Director of Marketing,
Americas
Karen.Gavenda@na.rsgroup.com
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SOURCE RS