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ABB launches UK cyber-security task force for automation

13 September, 2018

ABB UK has launched a dedicated team to tackle the growing cyber-security demands of sites that rely on industrial automation. The company is expanding its existing industrial cyber-security activities and adding multi-sector expertise to support operators both onsite and remotely.

The expanded cyber-security task force comprises more than 20 specialists including digital security engineers, cyber-system design specialists and analysts. They will help companies, principally in the oil, gas and petrochemical sector, to protect their industrial control systems.

The team will also include ABB experts from multiple industry sectors working with colleagues in other countries. Together they will offer a one-stop-shop for cyber-security assessment, detection and protection.

Industrial plants are vulnerable to attacks which can not only halt production but also have a devastating impact on health and safety, threatening lives in the event of catastrophic incidents.

“The task of securing industrial control systems from cyber-attacks brings its own challenges,” says Ben Dickinson, who has been appointed to lead ABB’s UK cyber-security team. “Malicious cyber-attacks are not just about stopping something from working, they’re also about causing the maximum disruption possible. In many sectors there are known criminal factions keen to cause problems that could result in serious consequences.

“We know approximately 70% of global companies, across every sector, have been the target of a cyber-security attack in the past year and fewer than half of them have any sort of intrusion detection system employed to look out for these attacks,” he adds.

ABB recommends that all organisations establish a cyber-security management system to understand and mitigate cyber-risks.




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