Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 15, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 13 I N F O R M A T I O N T E C H N O L O G Y F O C U S Ranked by percentage of cyber attacks targeting industrial control systems in the first half of 2017, according to a Kaspersky report cited by the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership Industries most susceptible to cyber threats Source: Kaspersky Each client's situa on is different and results may vary from those presented here CLIENT: METAL MANUFACTURER This employer froze its pension plan and wanted to con nue providing excep onal employee benefits, so it simultaneously increased its 401(k) match. Knowing this decision could upset some long-term employees, the plan sponsor turned to H&H for assistance. Get the full story at hhconsultants.com/success Put our knowledgeable professionals to work for your business. We offer a full range of comprehensive actuarial, investment advisory and re rement plan consul ng services designed to iden fy, achieve and exceed each client's specific need. RETIREMENT EDUCATION TO FORGE AHEAD W PLEASE JOIN US! • Bhavna's Wellness Group, Shrewsbury • Central Mass Power Washing & Restoration, Millbury • Charlton Furniture Co., Charlton • Kumon Math & Reading Center of West Worcester • New England Payments Corp., Sturbridge • Perrone Landscaping, Holden • Sweet Building & Remodeling, Sterling • Visions by Baker Portrait Art, Worcester • Webster First Federal Credit Union, Worcester Thank you to our event sponsors: Wednesday, November 14th at 5:00PM The Manor Restaurant, West Boylston, MA Join us as we reveal the winners of the 2018 Central MA Awards for Marketplace Excellence. Awards Presentations | Hors d'oeuvres | Networking Advanced tickets: $20 | Tickets can be purchased by calling 508-552-0366. 2018 FINALISTS: the pages and pages of legal documents included in the company's first contract about cyber incident reporting. Much of that language covered protocols around handling the classified information as a result of that government contract. "You can't dismiss that one," she said. Escorting all visitors Helping to protect the government's information is, quite literally, what West- borough-based Security Engineered Machinery does. e company manu- factures paper shredders and hard-drive destroyers to reduce items to dust. With products at every U.S. embassy, the gov- ernment is SEM's largest customer. As such, the company is required to do a more than maintain basic firewalls, said SEM President Andrew Kelleher. SEM personnel are required to log into government networks to update the company's security programs to ensure everything is air tight. When visiting the company's facility, visitors first enter a holding room before an employee unlocks the door to the main lobby. Any visitor must be escorted by a company employee at all times. Much of that increased awareness comes aer the U.S. Office of Personnel Management was hacked in 2014, which led to SEM employee information being leaked and distributed on the dark web. "It's not only the scientific community that's building weapons systems (that is prone to attempted hacks)," Kelleher said. "ey want to find out who is SEM's customer, what they're doing, where and when." Guarding against the latest hacks At Charlton injection molding com- pany MTD Micro Molding, IT Special- ist Sergio Melgoza was hired to help the small company beef up its cyber defenses. e company, which manufactures components largely for the medical in- dustry, is growing and becoming more technological, adding machines already equipped with network connections. "ere are more things to look out for," Melgoza said. Melgoza said another big concern in the industry is ransomware – soware stealing information from a person or company and publishing it unless a financial sum is paid. To protect against ransomware, Melgoza has helped bring best prac- tices right to the company's location aer years of MTD outsourcing its IT services. His work has included beefing up the company's backup systems, establishing user end training, encryption, firewall- ing and network segmentation. e manufacturing industry has historically made use of older devices never intended to be connected to the internet. Hackers are becoming more adept and the manufacturing industry – and the world – is becoming more technologically advanced and plugged in to the network, said Melgoza. "Machines weren't built with the thought that they would be connected to the internet, and manufacturers never thought the internet would be so big," he said. SEM in Westborough makes devices to destroy sensitive information. Manufacturing Engineering Education Food and beverage Energy 31% 25% 14% 10% 5%

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