This eliminates the need for service technicians to be physically present on site: Systems can practically be brought back up to speed over long distances and from the home office. Companies that fail to implement the transformation process run the risk of machine failure or even production downtime and the loss of business continuity.

Cyberattacks affect companies of all sizes

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Small and medium-sized industrial companies (SMEs) often believe themselves to be in a false sense of security against cyber attacks; they think they are less threatened than large companies with thousands of employees and their numerous, globally networked locations. However, this assessment is a serious fallacy. According to the study commissioned by NCP from techconsult, "Safeguarding and Remote Maintenance in Operational Technology" (OT), no significant differences were found between IT security incidents and different company sizes. Both the smallest and the largest companies have already been the target of cyberattacks on their OT. On average, 58% of companies have already been affected by at least one attack on their OT!
According to the survey, the most common reasons for security incidents were lack of firmware patches and human error (e.g. phishing). Another cause of cyberattacks is incorrect network and device configuration. The most alarming result, however, is that unsecured remote maintenance is to blame for dangerous gateways into the OT in more than one in four companies! Effective measures and solutions to protect OT are therefore more important than ever before in view of the increasing relevance of remote maintenance.

Secure remote access solutions in vogue

50% of the companies surveyed by techconsult are also already working on solutions for secure remote access or are planning to do so in the near future. At the center of all considerations is a secure connection between service technicians and machines. With the help of the NCP Smart Maintenance solution, a secure connection is established so that the technician has secure remote access to the machine to be serviced within a few minutes. This access is limited to the duration of the maintenance, the desired machine and the defined technician. By quickly establishing the connection, production downtime for the company is reduced to a minimum.

NCP serves many different IIoT scenarios with its software solutions. Several components are used at different points in the infrastructure and, when combined as an overall solution, ensure control and secure data encryption. Remote gateways guarantee secure communication between plants, machines or systems. A central gateway connects these securely and the central management system is used for administration, monitoring and integration into existing infrastructures.
State-of-the-art algorithms, such as Suite B Cryptography, are used to encrypt all connections between the end devices and the gateways. Centrally managed machine certificates from a public key infrastructure (PKI) ensure unique authentication of all end devices.
Thanks to the multi-client capability, providers can use the NCP components for numerous separate customers at the same time. Companies have the option of administering several production sites or company divisions via a common platform, whereby the individual divisions remain separate.

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