Drives & Controls March 2022

March 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com 10 n NEWS A GLOBAL SURVEY of 1,100 IT and operational technology (OT) professionals working in critical infrastructure organisations has revealed that 80% experienced a ransomware attack in the past year – almost half of these affecting industrial control systems – and that more than 60% of them paid the ransom, the majority paying at least $500,000 to the cyber-attackers. According to the survey, conducted for the cyber-security firm Claroty, most of those who paid the ransom estimated their losses in revenue per hour of downtime were at least as big as the payout. And even among those who did pay the ransom, 28% experienced substantial impacts to their operations for more than a week. Claroty says that the findings suggest that, despite the well-known downsides of paying ransoms, the alternative (revenue losses resulting from prolonged downtime) is too costly for most victim organisations to accept. The report, The Global State of Industrial Cybersecurity 2021: Resilience Amid Disruption , cites the combination of accelerating digital transformation and the limited availability of skilled cybersecurity workers, as important factors in the attacks on critical infrastructure. In response to the attacks, many executives have become more closely involved in overseeing their organisation’s cybersecurity practices. At least 60% of the organisations quizzed are centralising both their OT and IT governance under a“chief information security officer”, or Ciso. Nearly 90% of respondents are looking to hire more OT security staff, but 54% report that it is hard finding suitably qualified candidates. More than 80% of respondents say that they have increased their IT and OT/ICS security budgets since 2020. Implementing new technologies is their top cybersecurity priority, with the oil and gas and IT hardware sectors leading the way. Training is second. Almost two thirds (62%) support the idea that governments should enforce mandatory reporting of cybersecurity incidents that affect IT and OT/ICS systems. More than 90% of the organisations that suffered cybersecurity incidents say that they reported them to their shareholders and/or authorities. Although more than 65% of those quizzed rate their organisation’s vulnerability management strategy as being“moderately to highly proactive”, ransomware attacks are still being successful. Claroty suggests that this could be due to the fact that nearly 30% are sharing passwords and only 44% use VPNs – two areas where resilience can be strengthened in OT environments. “Our research shows that critical infrastructure security is at a pivotal juncture, where threats are proliferating and evolving, but there’s also a growing collective interest and desire in protecting our most essential systems,”says Claroty’s CEO, Yaniv Vardi.“Security leaders looking to take their programs to the next level must account for all cyber-physical systems in their risk governance practices, segmenting their IT and OT networks and assets, extending their general IT cybersecurity practices to their OT devices, and consistently monitoring for threats across all networks.” More than half (55%) of the organisations surveyed have revenues of more than $1bn. www.claroty.com 80% of infrastructure organisations suffer ransomware attacks – and 60% pay out Mach 2022 4–8 April 2022 NEC, Birmingham The exhibition, organised by the Manufacturing Technologies Association, will be part of part of the UK’s largest showcase for advanced engineering and manufacturing, which includes the Drives & Controls Show. New for 2022 are extended IT for Manufacturing Zone and 3D Printing Zones. www.machexhibition.com Drives & Controls 2022 05 - 07 April, 2022 NEC, Birmingham, UK The Drives & Controls exhibition and co- located events return to the NEC covering areas including automation, robotics, drives, machine safety, energy efficiency and motion control. Running alongside the Drives exhibition will be the Air-Tech, Fluid Power & Systems, Smart Industry Expo and Plant & Asset Management exhibitions, as well as the Mach show. www.drives-expo.com UKIVA Machine Vision Conference & Exhibition 28 April, 2022 Milton Keynes, UK Now in its sixth year, the event returns to the Marshall Arena to showcase the latest machine vision and imaging technologies and services frommore than 60 suppliers. The event will include a series of technical seminars and will provide opportunities for machine vision users and engineers to network and share knowledge. www.machinevisionconference.co.uk Hannover Messe 30 May –2 June, 2022 Hannover, Germany As the industrial mega-show returns as a face-to-face physical event in 2022, the key topics will be digitalisation and sustainability. Under the overarching theme of industrial transformation, leading global companies will show how to shift successfully to digitalised, resource-efficient and climate-neutral production. The partner country for 2022 is Portugal. https://www.hannovermesse.de/en Hillhead 2022 21-23 June, 2022 Buxton, Derbyshire The organisers of the quarrying, construction and recycling event, which takes place in a quarry, say that this year’s showwill have more than 600 exhibitors the first time. As well as exhibition marquees, the event includes live demonstrations of working equipment. www.hillhead.com Most critical infrastructure organisations experienced a ransomware attack last year, with almost half of them affecting industrial control systems Schaeffler buys planetary specialist Melior to boosts its robotics business SCHAEFFLER IS BUYING the German precision gearbox manufacturer Melior Motion, which specialises in planetary gearboxes for robots and other automation applications. No financial details of the acquisition have been disclosed. It will expand Schaeffler’s robotics portfolio. Melior, founded in 2017, can trace its origins back to Stephan-Werke, founded in 1908. The company, which generated revenues of around €23m in 2021, has more than 100 employees. It is planning a production site in China and intends to expand its production capacity significantly during 2022. Melior Motion has developed a precision planetary gearbox that is said to deliver good repeat accuracy and low noise levels, as well as being robust and offering long service lives. The gearboxes are claimed to offer key advantages over cycloidal gearboxes, including higher torque densities for faster movements, smaller sizes and higher payload capacities.